Bulgaria has shown low effectiveness in tackling climate change, contributing to thousands of deaths and causing direct economic losses from droughts and heatwaves estimated at more than EUR 1 billion in 2025 – approximately 1% of gross domestic product (GDP), or around EUR 140 per capita. These are among the findings of a new report, “Study of Vulnerabilities to and the Impacts of Climate Change in Bulgaria: Joint National Assessment”, coordinated by the Net-Zero Lab at the Sofia University Faculty of Economics and Business Administration and prepared by an interdisciplinary team of leading Bulgarian researchers.
The report says that Bulgaria ranks 50th out of 64 countries in terms of the effectiveness of action against climate change, according to the 2025 Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI). The country performs poorly in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, very poorly in climate policy and energy use, and at an average level in the use of renewable energy.
Located in the climate “hotspot” of South-Eastern Europe, Bulgaria recorded an average annual temperature around 0.8C higher in the 1991-2020 period than in 1961-1990, with warming most pronounced in the north of the country and during the summer.
Heatwaves are a leading and underestimated cause of excess mortality. Bulgaria is among the European countries hardest hit by heat. In 2023, heat was associated with 1,670 deaths (229 per million people, the second-highest intensity in Europe), while in 2024 it was associated with 3,414 deaths, the study shows.
Climate change is having an increasingly tangible economic impact on Bulgaria. This is reflected both in direct damage caused by extreme weather events – droughts, heatwaves, floods and wildfires – and in longer-term effects on productivity, public finances, infrastructure, energy and household well-being. According to an assessment by the European Environment Agency, without additional adaptation measures, Bulgaria could suffer a loss of between 1% of its real GDP under an optimistic scenario and 3.5% under a pessimistic scenario by 2050 as a result of climate change.
The report’s main conclusion is that Bulgaria has formally aligned its climate policies with European frameworks but is experiencing serious difficulties in implementing them in practice. The main shortcomings are a short-term outlook, political inconsistency, weak administrative capacity and dependence on project-based and EU funding, the experts stressed. The report also notes the absence of a national damage register, a reactive funding model and weak integration of climate risks into the fiscal framework – an issue of particular importance following Bulgaria’s accession to the euro area on January 1, 2026.
Report Blames Ineffective Climate Action for Thousands of Deaths and EUR 1 Bln in Losses Annually in Bulgaria 2026 THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-09-24 10:55:57
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