As thousands of people fled their homes amid devastating wildfires in France, Spain and Scotland, the UN’s climate chief issued a stark warning: “The climate alarm is blaring, from every direction.”
Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said on Tuesday that climate-driven disasters were “reaching nightmare proportions” and that the costs – both human and economic – were “now reaching national emergency levels.” He spoke as record-breaking wildfires tore through Europe, forcing mass evacuations and hammering regional and national economies, following brutal heatwaves that have dried out landscapes.
“UN chief Simon Stiell says climate disasters reach 'national emergency levels' as wildfires hit Scotland, France and Spain.”
Stiell pointed to a global pattern of extreme weather: North Africa approaching 49°C, deadly storms destroying homes in Chile, and temperatures tumbling records in Japan. “These spiraling disasters are now the lived reality for billions in a world getting rapidly hotter,” he said.
The warning came as a Channel 4 News report highlighted that governments around the world are “seemingly rolling back their efforts to end the fossil fuel pollution that is driving the climate emergency.” The episode featured environmentalist George Monbiot, Professor Liz Bentley of the Royal Meteorological Society, and Fiona Macklin, head of climate at Apolitical, discussing why politicians are not acting.
Stiell was unequivocal about the cause: “Global heating is making protracted heatwaves, severe floods and violent mega-storms more frequent, more intense and more costly.” He said the solution was equally clear: “Leave coal, oil and gas behind faster, scale up renewables, and protect people where the impacts are already hitting hardest.”
With the mercury set to soar again this week, the question posed by the Channel 4 programme – “are we as a people really ready to make the changes necessary?” – hangs over the flames.