France: climate impacts in focus

Summer 2023 saw a heat dome over parts of France, leading to temperatures rising beyond 40°C.

Residents and holidaymakers were also forced to evacuate to escape an unusually fast-moving wildfire in August.

Summer 2024 has seen athletes from around the world struggling to compete in the Paris Olympics under another heat dome which drove temperatures to 36°C which, scientists say, would likely have been some 3°C cooler, without climate change.

July 2024’s heatwave in France and five other Mediterranean countries, coming after more than a year of new record high temperatures globally in each of the 13 preceding months, would have been virtually impossible without human-driven climate change.