European heat wave – latest updates as red alerts and record temperatures continue

A leading climate scientist said he was “extremely pessimistic” about the world cutting emissions to limit the global average temperature to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Professor Robert Watson, of the Tyndall Climate Change Centre, told the Today program that failure to do so would lead to more heat waves, floods, sea level rise, crop failures and health problems.

Almost every country on Earth signed the Paris Agreement in 2015 to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C, but if not, it should be at least 2°C.

Eight years later, emissions have continued to rise, and current policies have us on track towards 2.5°C warming by the end of the century, according to Professor Watson.

Many countries, including the UK, have pledged to go net-zero – balancing the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere with those absorbed – but most are several decades away from achieving it.

The UK has committed to going to net zero by 2050, but Professor Watson, who was chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and scientific adviser to the UK and US governments, said current emissions must be cut in half before 2030 to have any chance of reaching the Paris targets.

He said: “I think most people fear that if we drop below 1.5C, which I don’t think we’ll achieve — in fact I’m very pessimistic about achieving even 2C — but if we allow the target to get looser, higher and higher, governments will do less in the future.

“We need to try to get governments to start acting wisely now and reduce emissions. But even governments that have a really good target, like the UK, don’t have the policies in place, and they don’t have the funding to get to those targets.”

Scientists have warned that allowing the global average temperature to reach 1.5°C could lead to irreversible tipping points that would warm the Earth beyond our control to dangerous and unpredictable levels.

In recent years, climate change and rising global temperatures have caused unprecedented heatwaves across the world – with the latest forecasts showing an increase in temperatures across southern Europe this week.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has warned that Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Poland could experience extreme conditions.

The effect of the heatwave has already sparked wildfires in Spain, prompting evacuations.

Greece also closed the ancient Acropolis during the hottest part of the day, while Italy issued red alerts for hot weather for several major cities.

Simon Calder outlined the cancellation rights that vacationers have if they don’t want to travel in record temperatures across Europe.

It comes after the State Department (FCDO) issued a warning to people traveling to Spain, Italy and Greece, that extreme temperatures are affecting these regions.

FCDO officials advised travelers to check information on the hottest regions and seek advice on how to take care of the heat.

If vacationers decide not to travel due to the high heat, normal terms and conditions apply and they will not be able to cancel without penalty, The Independent Travel reporter explained.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) expected the heat wave to intensify by the middle of the week, a spokeswoman said The Independent It is expected that the “above normal temperatures” of last week will continue into the next week.

Eli Hands, deputy chief of meteorology for the Met Office, said similarly The Independent The heatwave is expected to continue across southern Europe and North Africa and “slowly intensify” throughout the next week, with the focus gradually shifting towards southeastern Europe. The forecaster said that many parts of Greece, Turkey, southern Spain, Italy and the surrounding islands will reach temperatures of up to 45 degrees Celsius.

Wildfires across Greece were largely contained Thursday after swathes of forest and dozens of homes were destroyed for days, even as a new heat wave loomed, threatening to stoke weather conditions across the country.

A firefighting official said a fire west of Athens that prompted mass evacuations earlier in the week had been contained. Firefighters, supported by aerial water bombs, remained on site in case the fire was renewed.

On the island of Rhodes, firefighters continued to fight a fire that broke out in a heavily wooded mountainous area and forced people to flee.

Greece’s meteorological service warned of a fire risk from Thursday, as the country recovered from its first major heatwave of the summer.

A second heat wave is expected to start on Thursday, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas, and rising further on Friday to a maximum of 44 degrees Celsius.

Authorities said late Wednesday that ground and aerial firefighting forces will continue to carry out preventive patrols in forests across Greece amid difficult conditions.

Fires are common in Greece, but hotter, drier and windier summers have turned the Mediterranean into a hotbed of wildfires in recent years.

The Mediterranean region is grappling with high heat that could touch a new European record as soon as this week.

Temperatures are expected to exceed 40°C in parts of Spain and Italy in the coming days.

Spain, Italy and Greece have been experiencing sweltering temperatures for several days already, hurting agriculture and leaving tourists to seek shade.

Amid extreme heat waves this year and last year, concerns about rapid warming in Europe due to the climate crisis have mounted.

Europe is the fastest-warming continent in the world, according to a report published this year by the World Meteorological Organization and the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Warming of the continent has been twice as fast as the global average over the past four decades.

Scientists said this year will be the hottest on record for Earth, with sweltering heat waves across the northern hemisphere and one global temperature record after another being broken.

An analysis published in July by Berkley Earth found that there is a more than 80 percent chance that 2023 will be the hottest year on record.

Europe is set to continue baking under sweltering heat for weeks as global temperatures rise towards alarmingly high levels with records expected to be broken.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) expected the heatwave to intensify by the middle of the week, with a spokeswoman telling The Independent that “above normal temperatures” from last week are expected to continue through the next week.

my colleague Tara Cobham has more: