‘Disastrous’ summer showed EU must step up climate action, says Metsola

BRUSSELS — This summer sparked a “realization” that the European Union needs to strengthen its climate-proofing efforts, including by tailoring its budget to the challenges of a warming world, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said. She also expects the issue to feature heavily in Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union speech on Wednesday. “There will definitely be… a reflection on climate,” Metsola said in an interview with several media outlets Tuesday. “Where we are, what kind of summer we have lived through. There’s always a little bit of this in every State of the Union… I think this year the accent will be higher.