Greece fires – live: Rhodes state of emergency remains as flames reach outskirts of Athens

Paul Charles, CEO of travel PR firm PC Agency said: “Sadly we’re going to have to get used to more incidents like this – wildfires in the southern Mediterranean are going to become more common, so the travel industry needs to rework its plans for how to deal with this sort of thing.

“Consumers will want more reassurance in the future about the hotspot areas that will mean airlines and travel operators will need to have better plans in place for dealing with these sort of crisis and that might mean more flexible refund policies, it might mean putting more resources on the ground in a destination over the summer period so that they’re prepared.

“I do think the Foreign Office now needs to conduct a complete overhaul of its travel advice system.

“It failed the industry this week because the advice didn’t change and also consumers were caught between a rock and a hard place as they knew they would lose their money if they didn’t carry on with their booking and fly into the zones affected.

“There needs to be a complete overhaul of the Foreign Office travel advice system – what it’s for, how it changes and it needs to be in consultation with the industry.

“Either they create a whole new system or the Foreign Office doesn’t do travel advice and creates a new code of conduct for airlines and travel operators to follow.

“It’s left consumers confused and worried about losing their money.

“The travel advice from the Foreign Office is not fit for purpose for climate change.”

The Foreign Office has not advised Britons to avoid non-essential travel to the entire island, while some travel companies are continuing to fly holidaymakers to Rhodes as they claim the blazes are not affecting the whole island.

Human-induced climate change is responsible for the historic heatwaves sweeping the planet from China to the United States, scientists have found.

The research conducted by World Weather Attribution (WWA), which was released on Tuesday, says the record-shattering heat in Europe and the US would have been almost “impossible” in a world without global heating.

The researchers, who analysed records in all three continents, said the likelihood of extreme heat in China, which recently recorded its highest-ever temperature at 52.2C, is now 50 times more likely due to the climate crisis.

Stuti Mishra reports:

Wildfires have ravaged at least nine countries in Europe and North Africa this week, forcing mass evacuations as firefighters battle on in tinderbox conditions.

Extreme heat and billowing winds have created the “perfect storm” for fires to rip through swathes of land in Greece, France, Portugal, Spain, Gran Canaria, Italy, Croatia, Turkey, Algeria and Tunisia.

In Rhodes, one of the worst affected Greek islands, more than 20,000 tourists and locals fled from the blaze in “the biggest evacuation” in Greece’s history.

Maryam Zakir-Hussain reports:

The sweltering 40C summer in Britain last year “will be considered cool” by the turn of the century, as extreme weather events become more frequent, the Met Office has warned.

In its annual State of the UK Climate report, the Met Office analysed 2022’s weather and warned temperatures higher than 40C, summer droughts, grassfires and downpours will increase in both frequency and severity.

A severe heatwave gripped the country last summer, as a new temperature record was set (40.3C) and numerous wildfires were reported across Britain.

Maanya Sachdeva reports:

As wildfires rage across Sicily and Greece, Portugal is the latest Mediterranean country to be hit.

A fire broke out on 26 July near the popular coastal holiday spot of Cascais, just 30km west of capital city Lisbon.

The blaze started at 5pm in part of the Sintra-Cascais natural park, with strong winds fanning the flames and quickening the spread.

Local residents chipped in to help the hundreds of Portuguese firefighters sent to tackle the fires, with some attempting to protect their homes and villages with buckets of water and hosepipes.

“The fear now is that it will get to the houses,” local resident Ines Figueiredo told Reuters.

Helen Coffey reports:

Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the country needed to take more steps to combat the effects of the climate crisis as wildfires in the central part of the country flared up, forcing more evacuations.

The blazes across the country, which have been stoked by strong winds and temperatures exceeding 40C, killed two more people in central Greece on Wednesday, taking the death toll to five.

“The climate crisis may be a reality, but it cannot be an excuse,” the prime minister said yesterday.

He added: “Our country ought to take more steps ... to be ready to mitigate, as much as possible, the effects of a reality that we are already starting to feel, and that could have dramatic effects on many different aspects of our economic and social life.”

The warning lights have been on for weeks but now it is official: July 2023 is set to be the hottest month on record – and possibly in 120,000 years.

The new global mean temperature – the overall reading if you could stick a thermometer at every location on Earth – was confirmed by scientists at the European Copernicus Climate Change Service and World Meteorological Organisation.

Copernicus discovered that up to 23 July, Earth’s temperature averaged 16.95C, giving scientists enough data to declare a record before the month ends.

“Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning,” UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said on the findings.

“The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.”

Louise Boyle reports.