Climate alarm ‘blaring from every direction’

Climate-driven disasters are reaching “nightmare proportions” due to humanity’s “addiction” to fossil fuels, a top UN official warned on Tuesday.“The climate alarm is blaring from every direction,” said UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell in a statement.“With the mercury set to soar again this week, the awful costs of this climate crisis – both human and economic – are now reaching national emergency levels.”Why it mattersOver 250,000 hectares of land in Europe has burned, with 1,254 fires detected since the start of 2026Record-breaking wildfires are tearing through France, Spain and other parts of Europe, forcing mass evacuations and hammering regional and national economies, follow brutal heatwaves that have dried out landscapesIn North Africa, temperatures are approaching 49°C, putting lives and livelihoods in grave jeopardy, and putting hospitals and power systems under severe strainIn Chile, deadly storms have destroyed homes and livesIn Japan, records are tumbling as temperatures soar, now reaching the longest 40°C heat streak ever recorded.Clear solutions Mr. Stiell said these “spiralling disasters” are now the lived reality for billions in a world getting rap...