European heatwave – latest updates as red alerts and record temperatures continue

A leading climate scientist has said he is “very pessimistic” about the world reducing emissions to limit the global average temperature to 2C above pre-industrial levels.

Professor Robert Watson, of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change, told the Today Programme that failure to do so will result in more heatwaves, floods, sea level rise, crop failure and health problems.

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

Eight years later, emissions continue to rise and current policies have us on track for around 2.5C of warming by the end of the century, according to Prof Watson.

Many countries including the UK have made pledges to go net zero – balancing the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere with those absorbed – but most are several decades away from achieving that.

The UK has committed to going net zero by 2050 but Prof Watson, who has been chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and scientific adviser to the UK and US governments, said current emissions need to be slashed in half before 2030 to have any chance of reaching the Paris goals.

He said: “I think most people fear that if we give up on the 1.5C, which I do not believe we will achieve – in fact I’m very pessimistic about achieving even 2C – but if we allow the target to become looser and looser, higher and higher, governments will do even less in the future.

“We need to try and hold governments to start to act sensibly now and reduce emissions. But even governments with a really good target, like the United Kingdom, don’t have the policies in place, don’t have the financing in place to reach those goals.”

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

In recent years, climate change and rising global temperatures have triggered record-breaking heatwaves across the world – with the latest forecast showing an increase in temperatures across southern Europe this week.

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

The impact of the heatwave has already led to raging wildfires in Spain which has prompted evacuations.

Greece has also shut down the ancient Acropolis during the hottest part of the day, while Italy has issued hot weather red alerts for many major cities.

Simon Calder has outlined holidaymakers’ cancellation rights if they do not wish to travel in record-breaking temperatures across Europe.

It comes after the Foreign Office (FCDO) issued a warning for people travelling to Spain, Italy and Greece, that extreme temperarures are affecting these regions.

FCDO officials advised travellers to check information on hottest areas and to seek advice on how to take care in the heat.

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

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has forecast the heatwave should intensify by mid-week, with a spokeswoman telling The Independent the “above normal temperatures” of the past week are expected to continue over the next week.

Ele Hands, Met Office Deputy Chief Meteorologist, similarly told The Independent the heatwave across southern Europe and northern Africa is expected to “persist and slowly intensify” throughout the coming week, with the focus gradually moving towards southeast Europe. The forecaster said many parts of Greece, Turkey, southern Spain, and Italy and its surrounding islands are set to reach temperatures as high as 45C.

Wildfires across Greece were largely contained on Thursday after razing swathes of forest and dozens of homes for days, though a new heatwave loomed, threatening to stoke tinderbox conditions across the country.

A fire west of Athens which prompted mass evacuations earlier in the week was contained, a fire brigade official said. Firefighters, backed with air water bombers, remained on site in case of a resurgence of flames.

On the island of Rhodes, firefighters continued to battle a blaze that had erupted in a densely wooded mountainous area and forced people to flee.

Greek meteorological service had warned of a heightened risk of fires from Thursday, as the country recovered from the first major heatwave of the summer.

A second heatwave was forecast 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 44C.

Land and aerial firefighting forces will continue preventive patrolling in forests across Greece amid difficult conditions, authorities said late on Wednesday.

Fires are common in Greece, but hotter, drier and windy summers have turned the Mediterranean into a wildfire hotspot in recent years.

The Mediterranean region grapples with soaring heat that could touch a new European record as soon as this week.

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

Spain, Italy and Greece have been experiencing scorching temperatures for several days already, damaging agriculture and leaving tourists scurrying for shade.

Amid blistering heatwaves this year and last, concerns over the rapid warming of Europe due to the climate crisis have mounted.

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

The continent has been heating twice as fast as the global average for the last four decades.

This year is set to be the hottest on record for Earth, scientists said, amid blistering heatwaves across the northern hemisphere and global temperature records being shattered one after another.

An analysis published by Berkley Earth in July found there to be a more than 80 per cent chance of 2023 being the hottest year on record.

Europe is set to continue to bake under extreme heat for weeks as global temperatures soar towards alarming highs with records expected to be broken.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has forecast the heatwave should intensify by mid-week, with a spokeswoman telling The Independent the “above normal temperatures” of the past week are expected to continue over the next week.

My colleague Tara Cobham has more:

The dog was trapped in a garden in Mandra, a town on the outskirts of Athens, but police managed to free it from behind a locked gate.

“We do not leave animals helpless, tethered or caged… Moments from the release of our four-legged friend from a plot in Mandra,” Greek police wrote on Twitter.