Extreme heat in Europe ‘a brutal reminder’ of climate crisis, UN chief says

Simon Stiell said burning fossil fuels was driving intense heatwaves as UK and France broke temperature records on consecutive days

The UN climate chief has said an extreme early heat event sweeping parts of western Europe was “a brutal reminder of the spiralling impacts of the climate crisis”, after France and the UK set new temperature records for May on two consecutive days.

Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said on Wednesday the “main culprit” was humanity’s burning of coal, oil and gas – known to be the primary driver of climate change.