BY AKINDOYIN OLATAYO EMMANUEL
The United Nations Climate Change Executive Secretary, Simon Stiell, has warned that the climate crisis has become a continent-wide economic and security emergency for Europe, with this summer’s extreme weather estimated to have cost the region €180 billion.
Stiell gave the warning on Thursday, September 10, 2026, while addressing the European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Climate and Food Safety in Brussels, Belgium.
He said the economic damage from climate-driven extreme heat, droughts and other weather events was equivalent to about one percentage point of European Union gross domestic product (GDP)—the same level of growth forecast for the EU economy.
“This is the price of global fossil fuel addiction hitting home,” Stiell said, describing Europe’s exceptionally hot summer as evidence that climate change could no longer be treated as a partisan political issue.
He said the extreme heat had killed tens of thousands of people and inflicted widespread damage on infrastructure, businesses and economies.
According to the UN climate chief, the summer had brought mass evacuations, power station closures, disrupted trade routes, crop losses and declining yields, with food prices rising as a result.
“Climate is sometimes seen as a partisan issue: as territory in culture wars. That is palpably false,” he said.
Stiell said Europe was facing a “deathly double-blow” from climate impacts and its continuing exposure to volatile fossil-fuel prices.
He warned that households, businesses and governments were being squeezed by higher energy costs at a time when climate disasters were also increasing insurance premiums and leaving some properties and businesses effectively uninsurable.
The climate crisis, he said, was also contributing to higher government borrowing costs, reducing the fiscal space available to governments to provide essential public services.
He noted that climate impacts were not confined to Europe, pointing to devastating floods in the Himalayas and extreme heat in North Africa, where communities had experienced deaths, power outages, water shortages and economic disruption.
In some regions, he said, climate impacts were also contributing to forced migration both within countries and across national borders.
Stiell argued that Europe’s response should therefore go beyond reducing greenhouse gas emissions to building resilience against increasingly severe climate impacts.
“No wonder some EU member states are calling for a dedicated climate adaptation fund,” he said.
The UN official urged Europe to accelerate its transition away from fossil fuels, arguing that clean energy offered the continent a more secure and affordable alternative to volatile fossil-fuel imports.
He said renewables now provide around half of Europe’s electricity as investment in clean energy continues to grow.
Solar power alone, he added, had saved Europe more than €30 billion in avoided gas imports during the first six months of the conflict in the Middle East.
“Clean energy is the surest path to deliver, cheaply and safely,” Stiell said, arguing that greater investment in renewable energy would strengthen Europe’s energy security, economic stability and policy-making autonomy.
He also pointed to the economic opportunities created by the clean technology sector, saying European companies were already at the forefront of several clean industries.
Globally, more than $2 trillion was invested in clean energy in the previous year—twice the amount invested in fossil fuels, according to Stiell.
He said the growing clean-energy market represented a major opportunity for Europe to create jobs, strengthen businesses and improve living standards.
Despite progress in international climate cooperation, Stiell warned that the world remained far from the temperature goal established under the Paris Agreement.
He said that without UN-convened climate cooperation, the world would be heading towards more than 4°C of global warming, compared with around 2.6°C under current policies.
“That’s a long way from the 1.5 degree limit demanded by science to avert the worst climate impacts, and agreed among nations, time and time again,” he said.
Stiell acknowledged recent assessments indicating that the 1.5°C threshold will now be breached, but stressed that this did not mean efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C should be abandoned.
A temporary overshoot, he argued, could still be reversed through concerted global action.
“Concerted global action can bring the temperature rise back down to 1.5 degrees,” he said.
His comments come against the backdrop of increasingly frequent global temperature records and extreme weather events. The Copernicus Climate Change Service recently reported that August 2026 was the joint-warmest month on record, with global temperatures reaching 1.65°C above the estimated pre-industrial level.
Stiell said Europe’s historical role in international climate diplomacy placed a particular responsibility on the EU to maintain and strengthen its climate leadership.
He recalled Europe’s contribution to the development of the international climate regime and the Paris Agreement, saying continued European leadership was essential not only for climate action but also for vulnerable countries.
He urged the EU to avoid a “two-speed global transition” in which wealthier economies rapidly move into clean technologies while developing countries struggle to make the transition.
According to Stiell, Europe should strengthen international partnerships to secure supply chains for clean energy technologies and new industries while continuing to honour its climate finance commitments.
He also called for greater attention to the quality and accessibility of climate finance, arguing that stronger delivery would help build trust between developed and developing countries.
With the next UN climate conference, COP31, scheduled to take place in Türkiye, Stiell urged the EU to support efforts to turn existing climate commitments into concrete action.
He said countries should focus on implementing decisions already agreed at previous climate conferences rather than reopening settled agreements.
“The need now is not to re-open decisions already taken. It’s delivering what’s already been agreed,” he said.
Stiell called on countries to implement their existing climate plans and targets and strengthen their ambitions where domestic conditions allow.
He said progress must be accelerated ahead of the second global stocktake of climate action in 2028, when countries will assess whether they are moving closer to fulfilling the commitments made under the Paris Agreement.
He also urged the EU to support the development of a just transition mechanism designed to help countries pursue fair transitions that create opportunities for all.
Stiell said COP31 should also drive practical action in areas with immediate impacts on people’s lives.
Among the priorities he identified were methane reduction, food security and waste, and strengthening the resilience of cities to climate extremes.
Methane, he said, was particularly important because it is a powerful greenhouse gas and reducing emissions can deliver relatively rapid benefits in slowing near-term warming.
He also linked climate action to food security, warning that climate-driven droughts were damaging crops and contributing to higher food prices.
The Turkish COP31 Presidency, working with Australia, has identified a target of having electricity meet 35 per cent of final global energy demand by 2035 as part of the Global Climate Action Agenda.
Stiell said Europe was already making progress, particularly in electrification and electric mobility, with around one in four new cars sold in Europe now electric.
He encouraged the EU to build on these gains while using its influence to accelerate climate action globally.
Stiell concluded by arguing that climate policy should be viewed through the lens of issues that matter directly to citizens, rather than as an abstract environmental debate.
“We live in a polarized age: But inflation is a common enemy, security is a common cause. Health, jobs, community and prosperity matter to us all,” he said.
“And every one of them demands action on climate.”
His message to European lawmakers was clear: accelerating climate action is not only about meeting international emissions targets but also about protecting households from rising costs, strengthening energy security, safeguarding jobs and businesses, and preparing communities for increasingly severe climate impacts.
