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

Seventeen of France’s 96 administrative departments were on an orange high temperature alert on Wednesday, with a peak temperature of 39C expected, and 32C in Paris. Photograph: Tom Nicholson/Reuters

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.