The heatwave scorching Europe has the fingerprints of climate change all over it and is “the latest price to pay for fossil fuel pollution baking our planet”, UN climate chief Simon Stiell said Thursday.
Europe has endured extreme heat this week, with record-breaking temperatures in France, Britain and Spain and other countries issuing high-level heat alerts.
“Europe’s savage heatwave has the fingerprints of the climate crisis all over it — it’s the latest price to pay for fossil fuel pollution baking our planet,” Stiell said in a statement.
“Until humanity stops burning colossal amounts of coal, oil and gas, extreme heat will keep getting worse,” he said.
Scientists have shown that recurring heatwaves are a clear marker of global warming, and warn they are set to become more frequent, longer and more intense.
Western Europe was in the grip of a heatwave that claimed dozens of lives, disrupted power supplies, shut schools and cultural landmarks, as forecasters warned the extreme temperatures could persist until the end of the week.
Smashing previous records, Britain logged its highest temperature for June, reaching 36.1 degrees Celsius (96.98 degrees Fahrenheit) in southern England as a heat dome hovered over much of Western Europe.
Temperatures in Paris hit a June record of 40.9°C, a day after France recorded its hottest day since records began nearly 80 years ago, when temperatures peaked at 44.3°C in the southwestern town of Pissos.
Italy’s health ministry placed 16 cities — including Florence, Milan, Rome, Turin and Verona — on its highest heat alert, and warned the heatwave could intensify further, peaking between Sunday and Monday.
At least 48 people have died in France from drowning since the onset of the heatwave while trying to cool off, authorities said, and two young children were killed by heat in a car.
Spain reported two elderly people had died of heatstroke after days of temperatures exceeding 40°C, though conditions there began to ease on Wednesday following the hottest late-June days on record, according to national weather agency AEMET.
Scorching temperatures killed hundreds of thousands of birds at poultry farms in Brittany and the Pays de la Loire, agricultural groups said.
France’s nuclear power plants, which supply most of the country’s electricity, cut output by about 7% of total demand as high temperatures limited access to cooling water.
The heatwave is being driven by a weather pattern known as an Omega block, pushing temperatures as much as 18°C above normal, according to the Reuters Climate Monitor.
The phenomenon resembles the shape of the Greek letter Omega, with a bulbous middle trapping in heat over regions for extended periods, with cooler weather on its fringes. Heatwaves and storms are being intensified by climate change.
Britain’s record-breaking heat followed only the second extreme heat warning ever issued. Hundreds of schools closed or shortened their day as officials warned that high temperatures could endanger even healthy people. The 36.1°C reported by the Met Office in Gosport in Hampshire edged above the previous June record of 35.6°C set in 1957 and matched in 1976.
