Ljubljana - Commenting on the heatwave and wildfires spreading across Europe, Delo says in Wednesday's front-page commentary that procrastination by the EU law-makers will prove to be the planet's downfall in the not-so-distant future. Climate change is happening here and now, but even France's Macron is lagging behind in taking action.

Headlined We Have to Start Living Differently Sooner Rather Than Later, the commentary warns of empty promises made by EU politicians on fighting climate change, even though "we are facing its effects on a daily basis now, with wildfires blazing throughout France and Spain in the midst of a heatwave."

While Macron made headlines in 2017 with his Make Our Planet Great Again green initiative, a slap in the face for then US president Donald Trump, two-thirds of France's citizens now believe his promises on tackling environmental problems were empty.

Delo also addresses the issue of EU solidarity amidst the wildfire crisis and wonders why decision makers have not made good on their promises to offer more help to struggling firefighters via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

We are destroying our planet collectively, warns the commentator, while also noting many European countries have not yet committed themselves to pursuing an environment-friendly policy, nor have they added climate change to their vocabulary. This is either due to their incompetence, inability to think outside the box, corruption, or all of the above, Delo says.

While China and the US might be the planet's two largest GHG emitters, the EU is far from setting a good example in third place. And France falls right in the "empty promises" category, according to climatologist Valérie Masson-Delmotte, who told Le Monde France is just barely keeping up with the fast-changing climate in their policy-making.

Fortunately, the French are becoming increasingly aware of climate problems and have even launched a public initiative to fight climate change in 2020. The Macron government's political actions are a far cry from the propositions made by the UN's Panel on Climate Change to change the way people live sooner rather than later if life on Earth is to be sustained.

"If ecology is anything like modern democracy, our future is not looking very bright", Delo laments, adding that European policies are inadequate due to politicians with fingers crossed behind their back taking office.

It just might be up to the modern, environmentally conscious, Average Joe to outrun policy-makers and live in harmony with others and the environment to protect Earth, Delo concludes.