Environment news

• UK records its hottest June day and France its hottest day ever as heatwave sweeps Europe

  24-06-2026 20:03
  Temperature of 36.1C (97F) recorded in Hampshire, while two-thirds of Europe’s population experience temperatures above 30CThe UK has broken its all-time temperature record for June and France has recorded its hottest day ever for the second day running, as a heatwave affecting more than 90 million people sweeps across swathes of Europe.As the UK and France registered record-breaking temperatures, the World Health Organization warned that the extreme temperatures are “putting lives a
  
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• Farmers criticise government plan to counter threats to UK food security

  24-06-2026 19:47
  Plan warns climate crisis will lead to food price shocks and shortages but farmers say it fails to adequately fund responseThe climate crisis will lead to food price shocks and shortages, the government has warned in its new plan for British farming.But farmers criticised the plan, which outlines for the first time the government’s vision for the long-term direction of farming, for failing to adequately fund a response to this threat to the UK’s food security. Continue reading...
  
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• Europe heatwave live: UK breaks temperature record for June as parts of France hit 40C – as it happened

  24-06-2026 18:51
  West Sussex reports temperature of 35.8C, beating previous record from 1976; red weather alert extended to 72 of France’s 96 mainland departmentsGrahame Madge, a Met Office spokesperson, said the agency is forecasting 39C as a headline maximum temperature on Thursday in the UK, most likely for somewhere in London or the south-east.“It is possible we could see temperatures higher than the 39C if the final values are at the upper end of our narrow range,” he said, according to th
  
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• Europe heatwave live: UK breaks temperature record for June as parts of France hit 40C

  24-06-2026 17:02
  Surrey reports temperature of 35.7C, beating previous record from 1976; red weather alert extended to 72 of France’s 96 mainland departmentsTell us: how is the heatwave in the UK and across Europe affecting you?Grahame Madge, a Met Office spokesperson, said the agency is forecasting 39C as a headline maximum temperature on Thursday in the UK, most likely for somewhere in London or the south-east.“It is possible we could see temperatures higher than the 39C if the final values are at
  
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• ‘Instant connection to the past’: how the Major oak affected those who saw it

  24-06-2026 16:47
  Readers remember the Sherwood Forest tree that has failed to produce leaves for the first time in 1,000 years Continue reading...
  
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• Europe heatwave live: estimated 94 million people to experience temperatures above 35C today

  24-06-2026 16:09
  UK issues rare red heat alert as 68,000 households lose electricity in northern France and Italy puts warnings in place for 16 citiesTell us: how is the heatwave in the UK and across Europe affecting you?Grahame Madge, a Met Office spokesperson, said the agency is forecasting 39C as a headline maximum temperature on Thursday in the UK, most likely for somewhere in London or the south-east.“It is possible we could see temperatures higher than the 39C if the final values are at the upper end
  
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• Europe heatwave live: 94 million people to experience temperatures above 35C today

  24-06-2026 13:05
  UK issues rare red heat alert as 68,000 households lose electricity in northern France and Italy puts warnings in place for 16 citiesFrance records hottest day ever as 40 people drown across countryTell us: how is the heatwave in the UK and across Europe affecting you?Grahame Madge, a Met Office spokesperson, said the agency is forecasting 39C as a headline maximum temperature on Thursday in the UK, most likely for somewhere in London or the south-east.“It is possible we could see temperat
  
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• ‘No one believed it’: how a YouTube video accidentally proved Libya’s sand cat really does exist

  24-06-2026 13:00
  Wildlife photographer Mohammed Almuntasir had no idea what he had found until scientists started to get in touchWhen wildlife photographer Mohammed Almuntasir uploaded 18 seconds of footage to YouTube, he thought little more about the small, pale cat seen digging a hollow in the sand in the remote dunes of south-west Libya.The video, however, posted in 2017, turned out to be the first material evidence that the sand cat (Felis margarita), the world’s only felid adapted to true desert condi
  
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• ‘Carspreading’ could lead to extra 400 crash deaths a year by 2040, study finds

  24-06-2026 12:11
  
  Analysis shows cars in Europe have grown longer, taller and wider every year since 2000Cars have grown 1.2cm longer, 0.5cm taller and 0.5cm wider each year on average since 2000, analysis of new vehicles sold in Europe has found, in what green groups call “relentless carspreading”.The increase in size, which leaves people more likely to be killed in a crash and increases emissions that hurt lungs and heat the planet, has progressed at a roughly steady rate for two and half decades ev
  
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• ‘Carspreading’ could lead to extra 2,600 crash deaths a year by 2040, study finds

  24-06-2026 12:11
  Analysis shows cars in Europe have grown longer, taller and wider every year since 2000Cars have grown 1.2cm longer, 0.5cm taller and 0.5cm wider each year on average since 2000, analysis of new vehicles sold in Europe has found, in what green groups call “relentless carspreading”.The increase in size, which leaves people more likely to be killed in a crash and increases emissions that hurt lungs and heat the planet, has progressed at a roughly steady rate for two and half decades ev
  
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• Europe heatwave live: UK issues rare red heat warning as record-breaking temperatures in France bring power outages

  24-06-2026 11:18
  Temperatures expected to hit 40C in parts of the UK, as extreme heatwave spreads slowly eastwards, sparking warnings in Italy and the NetherlandsFrance records hottest day ever as 40 people drown across countryTell us: how is the heatwave in the UK and across Europe affecting you?Grahame Madge, a Met Office spokesperson, said the agency is forecasting 39C as a headline maximum temperature on Thursday in the UK, most likely for somewhere in London or the south-east.“It is possible we could
  
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• Europe heatwave live: UK braces for record-breaking temperatures; Italy issues red alert for 16 cities

  24-06-2026 09:30
  Temperatures expected to hit 40C in parts of the UK, as extreme heatwave spreads slowly eastwards, sparking warnings in Italy and the NetherlandsFrance records hottest day ever as 40 people drown across countryTell us: how is the heatwave in the UK and across Europe affecting you?Grahame Madge, a Met Office spokesperson, said the agency is forecasting 39C as a headline maximum temperature on Thursday in the UK, most likely for somewhere in London or the south-east.“It is possible we could
  
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• Paris in ‘heatwave mode’ has banned alcohol at some public events. Can other cities follow its lead? | Helen Massy-Beresford

  24-06-2026 09:00
  Following a devastating heatwave in 2003 that killed 15,000, France has adopted four alert levels to help people cope with extreme temperaturesHelen Massy-Beresford is a British journalist and editor who lives in ParisOver the weekend, as evening fell on the hilly (and, crucially, shady) Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, one of Paris’s most popular green spaces, the joyfully chaotic Fête de la musique – a summer solstice celebration of music in all its forms – got under way, with
  
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• 24-hour parks and alcohol bans: what cities could learn from Paris’s ‘heatwave mode’ | Helen Massy-Beresford

  24-06-2026 09:00
  Following a devastating heatwave in 2003 that killed 15,000, France has adopted four alert levels to help people cope with extreme temperaturesHelen Massy-Beresford is a British journalist and editor who lives in ParisOver the weekend, as evening fell on the hilly (and, crucially, shady) Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, one of Paris’s most popular green spaces, the joyfully chaotic Fête de la musique – a summer solstice celebration of music in all its forms – got under way, with
  
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• Documenting Ireland’s vanishing boglands: ‘They hold millennia in their layers’

  24-06-2026 07:00
  
  Photographer Shane Hynan explores the tension between the central role peat bogs play in Irish life and their wider environmental impact“You can read Ireland’s history in the boglands. They hold millennia in their layers,” says photographer Shane Hynan of his project, Beofhód (meaning Beneath in English).The boglands, known as portachs in Irish, cover roughly 1.2m to 1.5m hectares or about 14% to 17% of the country’s total land area. The raised bogs of the Irish Mi
  
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• Could mountains be key to unlocking hydrogen’s potential?

  24-06-2026 07:00
  
  Researchers assessed likelihood gas was produced during creation of Alps, Pyrenees and Baetic mountainsHydrogen gas is anticipated to play a central role in phasing out fossil fuels, particularly in industries that are proving more challenging to decarbonise, such as chemical production, shipping and steelmaking. But producing hydrogen synthetically is energy intensive and costly. In order for the hydrogen economy to take off, we need to find reliable natural sources of this gas. Could it be hid
  
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• Country diary: This ‘secret’ island takes me back to Swallows and Amazons | Amy-Jane Beer

  24-06-2026 06:30
  Horsey Island, Hamford Water, Essex: It’s the setting for one of Arthur Ransome’s wonderful books, and today it’s farmed by a single family with innovation and careYou need two permissions to access Horsey Island: one from the farmer, the second from the tide, which offers a four-hour window in every 12 when the causeway can be crossed. It takes me 20 minutes to pick my way over, wading the deeper sections where spindly marker posts show the way. It’s a disconcerting plac
  
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• Different sperm whale ‘dialects’ detected on separate sides of the Mediterranean

  24-06-2026 06:00
  Matriarchal groups in east and west exhibit distinct click patterns, used to form social structuresFrom “Howdy” to “G’day”, English – like other languages – is rich in dialects. Now researchers have found sperm whales on different sides of the Mediterranean show similar variations in their vocalisations.Sperm whales communicate vocally using sequences of short clicks called codas. However, the rhythmic pattern of these clicks, known as the dialect, can d
  
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• Weakening UK net zero policy would damage economy, chief climate adviser says

  24-06-2026 01:01
  Climate Change Committee chair Nigel Topping says U-turns damage investor confidence and disrupt businessesWeakening the UK’s net zero policy would disrupt business and damage the economy, the UK’s chief climate adviser has warned.Nigel Topping, chair of the Climate Change Committee (CCC), said: “The U-turns are really damaging to inward investor confidence. If we really want to grow the economy, then investing and getting good at building stuff is essential.” Continue re
  
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• Adidas, Uniqlo and Calvin Klein ads in UK banned over ‘recycled’ clothing claims

  24-06-2026 01:01
  UK regulator has increased its scrutiny of fashion retailers over potentially misleading environmental statementsAds for Calvin Klein, Adidas and Uniqlo promoting “recycled” clothing and shoes have been banned by the UK watchdog after the advertisers were unable to prove their green claims.Each of the fashion companies ran paid-for Google ads, with Adidas promoting “recycled running shoes”, Calvin Klein “recycled” tops for women, and Uniqlo advertised fleece c
  
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