Europe heatwave shows need to reject climate denial ‘lies’, says EU green chief

A man checks for damaged corn in Cremona, northern Italy, in June. The European heatwave has exposed the risks to food production caused by the climate crisis. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images View image in fullscreen A man checks for damaged corn in Cremona, northern Italy, in June. The European heatwave has exposed the risks to food production caused by the climate crisis. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images Europe heatwave shows need to reject climate denial ‘lies’, says EU green chief Teresa Ribera blames ‘ideologically driven’ falsehoods, driven by those with vested interests in fossil fuels, for attacks on green policy The heatwave wreaking chaos across Europe is a “dramatic warning” to reject climate naysayers, a European Commission vice-president says. Teresa Ribera, executive vice-president for a clean, just and competitive transition, lambasted those who listened to the “vested interests” of the fossil fuel industry rather than scientists and their own citizens. “This is a dramatic warning being sent once again by nature on what it means to have a different climate system,” she told the Guardian. “What we are experiencing today [in the form of record heat] is what we knew could happen, but we have not been smart enough to address the root causes. There is still this fierce fight against facts, science, preparedness, and investment [in clean energy], so we are failing people. We need to reject this kind of bullshit based on lies, and against people’s interests.” View image in fullscreen Teresa Ribera: ‘We need to reject this kind of bullshit [climate crisis denial] based on lies, and against people’s interests.’ Photograph: Mauro Ujetto/LaPresse/Shutterstock The record heat of the past week is set to abate this week in parts of western Europe, but Germany, Czechia, Poland and Hungary reached record temperatures of more than 40C on Sunday as the heatwave spread east. Italy and the Balkans felt the impact of the scorching temperatures on Monday, with growing concerns over the spread of wildfires, while Ukraine’s energy grid was buckling under temperatures in excess of 36C. Schools and tourist attractions have closed , businesses have sent staff home, some nuclear reactors have had to be taken offline, and the World Health Organisation said the early summer heatwave was responsible for more than 1,300 excess deaths, although the true toll will not be known until later . Ribera recalled listening as a teenager to a Spanish song called 37 Degrees, about what happens when the temperature rises that far – something she experienced for only a few days a year in Madrid at that time. Today, she said, “that could be three, four, five weeks, and even in London, in Paris, in Berlin”. View image in fullscreen A woman uses a fan to cool her baby amid a heatwave, during mass led by Pope Leo in St Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican, on Monday 29 June. Photograph: Yara Nardi/Reuters She blamed “nonsense and ideologically driven lies” peddled by vested interest