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The 2026 wildfire season has seen record-breaking burn areas, with roughly 579,000 square miles burned globally in the first four months. This trend is driven by a powerful El Niño, hydroclimate 'whiplash', and the expansion of fires into previously immune regions. These conditions have led to over 110 military deployments across 49 countries between January and July 2026, straining defense priorities and threatening critical infrastructure. The document analyzes different military response models—ranging from Spain's dedicated standing unit (UME) to Indonesia's integrated civilian-military approach—and recommends expanding collaborative models, investing in joint training, and building international interoperability to manage wildfires as a standing security challenge.

The report argues that clean flexibility solutions are ready to scale across the EU to replace fossil-based grid balancing. It projects a fourfold increase in battery capacity by 2030, which would allow batteries to deliver over 80% of the power that all EU gas plants combined can generate in a single hour. Additionally, the report highlights the role of smart EV charging and heat pumps in absorbing surplus renewable generation and reducing peak demand, provided that regulatory barriers are removed and smart meter rollout is accelerated.

The EU battery fleet is projected to grow fourfold from 37 GW in 2025 to 178 GW by 2030, significantly reducing the need for gas-based backup. By 2030, utility-scale batteries could provide short-term flexibility at 20% lower cost than new gas peakers. Additionally, the report highlights the role of demand flexibility: by 2030, 50% of electric vehicles (EVs) could use smart charging to absorb 7% of peak wind and solar generation, and 15% of heat pump demand could be shifted to high-renewable periods, reducing peak demand by 3%. The report recommends that policymakers avoid overbuilding gas capacity, set ambitious non-fossil flexibility targets by January 2027, and accelerate smart meter rollout to enable these technologies.

Europe is facing a significant demographic shift characterized by declining working-age populations and increasing old-age dependency, which is expected to create tighter labour markets and labour shortages by 2050. While this trend may stunt GDP growth and complicate investment, it provides an opportunity for trade unions to increase worker bargaining power and revitalize their membership, particularly by organizing the expanding care sector.

The briefing identifies a systematic 'escalation of doubt' strategy used by disinformation actors to minimize the role of climate change in wildfires. It details how narratives shift from attributing fires to criminal acts or government mismanagement to more extreme conspiracy theories, such as claims that fires are started to clear land for wind farms or lithium extraction. The document highlights the role of digital platforms' 'attention economy' in amplifying these lies, noting that in Canada, such disinformation has interfered with emergency services and public safety during crises. It concludes that 86% of Canadians support a federal plan to regulate the spread of climate disinformation during extreme weather events.

In 2025, global coal capacity increased by 3.5% while production fell by 0.6%, as new plants are increasingly built for backup reliability rather than primary generation. This trend is most prominent in China and India, where renewables are meeting most new demand. While the number of countries developing coal projects fell to 32, political interventions in the US and energy security concerns in the EU have delayed planned closures. The EU continues a terminal decline in coal, with solar and wind producing more energy than all fossil fuels combined for the first time in 2025.

The report identifies a recurring 'implementation gap' where adaptation policies increasingly use the language of systemic risk—interconnected hazards, cascading impacts, and deep uncertainty—but continue to operate through hazard- and sector-based routines. Through comparative analysis of the EU, ASEAN, and the US, it finds that mandates, funding, and monitoring systems remain fragmented, often ignoring policy trade-offs and distributional inequities. It concludes by proposing a framework based on systemic risk framing, policy interlinkages, and deep uncertainty management to help decision-makers stress-test investments and avoid maladaptation.

In 2025, global electricity generation saw a significant shift toward low-carbon sources, with solar and wind reaching a combined 17.3% share of total generation. Solar was the fastest-growing source, adding 636 TWh and meeting 75% of global demand growth. Conversely, coal's share of global electricity fell below one-third for the first time on record to 33.0%, and renewable generation exceeded coal generation for the first time. Low-carbon sources (including nuclear) reached 42.6% of total generation, while the emissions intensity of electricity dropped by 2.7% in 2025, the largest annual decline in two decades.

The document examines how climate change and human activity are increasing the vulnerability of both fire-adapted and non-adapted forests. It highlights the severe carbon emissions and ecological losses from recent record-breaking fires in 2023 and 2024, particularly in Canada and South America. The text details the drivers of vulnerability—including forest fragmentation and drought—and proposes resilience strategies such as securing Indigenous land rights, implementing fire breaks, and expanding restoration financing.

In 2025, wind and solar energy reached a record 22% of Türkiye's electricity generation, though coal remained the largest source at 34%. While the country has a massive 33 GW battery project pipeline that exceeds any single EU nation, it still trails European averages for renewable energy share. Persistent drought has significantly reduced hydroelectric output, increasing reliance on natural gas imports by an estimated $1.8 billion annually. A new purchase guarantee for domestic coal plants starting in 2026 may further increase coal generation, potentially contradicting the country's 2035 target of 120 GW of wind and solar capacity.

Europe experienced its coldest January since 2010, with temperatures 1.63°C above the 1991-2020 mean, though regional variations were significant. Forecasts for March-May 2026 project warmer-than-average temperatures across the continent, particularly in eastern and southeastern Europe, and generally weakly positive precipitation anomalies.

The document highlights the growing role of energy storage in supporting the global transition to renewable energy, noting that combined wind and solar capacity has reached 3,222 GWac. It identifies China, the U.S., and the EU as leaders in total capacity, while emphasizing the trend of colocating storage with renewables in emerging markets like Chile, Türkiye, Australia, and Nigeria to manage curtailment and grid instability. Specifically, Chile is identified as the leader in Latin America, utilizing BESS to address transmission constraints and target 80% renewable electricity generation by 2030.

The briefing critiques Sweden's Social Climate Plan for its limited focus on a single electric vehicle premium, arguing that it ignores 120,000 heating-poor households and fails to address the root causes of transport poverty. Using the Transitional Assistance Framework, the authors categorize the plan as 'adaptive' but 'narrow' because it provides financial aid without addressing structural barriers like charging infrastructure or public transport. The document contrasts Sweden's approach with more comprehensive proposals from Greece, Latvia, and Poland, and recommends that EU member states prioritize structural investments over short-term technology subsidies to ensure a truly just transition.

The report highlights that 'next generation geothermal' technologies, such as Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), have expanded the geographic viability of geothermal power beyond volcanic regions. In the EU, approximately 43 GW of capacity could be developed at costs below 100 €/MWh, potentially generating 301 TWh of electricity annually. While Europe has a strong historical foundation in geothermal energy, the report warns that the EU risks losing its leadership to the US and Canada due to slow permitting and a lack of coordinated policy frameworks. It also notes geothermal's potential to meet the rising energy demands of AI data centres and its ability to provide firm, low-carbon power and mineral recovery, such as lithium.

In 2025, EU wholesale electricity prices rose in 21 countries, driven by spikes during peak gas-use hours. Grid-scale battery capacity in the EU exceeded 10 GW in 2025, more than double the 4 GW recorded in 2023. A pipeline of projects in Germany, Poland, and Italy could push capacity beyond 40 GW, potentially displacing costly gas generation and reducing the waste of curtailed wind and solar power.

In 2025, the EU power sector reached a tipping point as wind and solar generated 30.1% of electricity, surpassing all fossil fuel sources at 29.0%. Solar generation hit a record 369 TWh, growing by 20.1% over 2024, while coal fell to a historic low of 9.2% of the mix. Despite a slight increase in gas power generation and associated import costs, renewables provided nearly half of the EU's electricity (47.7%), with solar output helping to offset low wind and hydro production caused by unusual weather in early 2025.

The document reports that Europe experienced a November 2025 temperature 1.38°C above the 1991-2020 mean, with record highs in central western Russia and record low precipitation in Turkey. For the January-March 2026 period, forecasts project warmer-than-average temperatures across Europe, particularly in the northeast, and generally weakly positive precipitation anomalies, though soil moisture is expected to be weakly negative in Spain, Italy, central Europe, and Turkey.

The report evaluates ten distinct indexes designed to diagnose the resilience or vulnerability of political information environments to mis- and disinformation. It develops a typology of these tools—categorizing them as advertising-oriented, policy-driven, academically oriented, or public outreach—and analyzes their conceptual foundations, data collection methods, and scoring architectures. The review finds that most indexes rely on proxy indicators (such as institutional trust or media freedom) rather than direct measurement of false content. Comparative case studies reveal that while some indexes converge on structural constants in advanced democracies, others diverge sharply due to different operational definitions of 'resilience,' such as distinguishing between reactive mobilization and long-term structural capacity. The document concludes that current measurement is fragmented and recommends a more unified architecture that integrates structural, behavioral, and platform-specific dynamics.

Climate change is driving global wine production to historic lows, with sparkling wine facing specific threats to its quantity and quality. Extreme weather in France, Spain, and Italy has led to reduced yields and price increases for labels like Cava and Prosecco. Higher temperatures are accelerating ripening, which alters the balance of sugar and acid, potentially resulting in higher alcohol levels and less fizzy wines. Projections suggest that if global temperatures rise by 2°C, over half of suitable wine-growing regions could shrink, with up to 90% of traditional areas in southern Europe becoming economically unviable. Adaptation strategies, such as relocating vineyards or using protective technology, are costly and may fail to preserve the unique cultural and flavour characteristics of traditional sparkling wines.

The report finds that the EU is not on track to meet its 2030 interconnection targets, with 80% of the power system expected to miss the goal. To reach an optimal grid by 2040, Europe needs to nearly double its interconnection capacity, adding 151 GW. This expansion requires an estimated €150 billion in investment, leaving a €30 billion public funding gap in the proposed 2028-2034 Connecting Europe Facility for Energy (CEF-E) budget.