French Environment Minister: Summer 2026 to be Hottest in France Since 1990

Paris, Sept 3 (KUNA) -- French Environment Minister Monique Barbut announced on Thursday that the summer of 2026, which France experienced, was “the hottest on record since monitoring and assessment began in 1990.” Minister Barbut, in a statement made while presenting the “Summer Climate Report” covering the period from June to August according to meteorological experts’ classification, noted that France endured its hottest summer in history this year, marked by intense heatwaves, severe droughts, and massive forest fires, adding, “We have just lived through the hottest summer ever recorded in France.” She further stated that by the end of last August, forest fires had consumed an area six times the average burned area over the past 20 years. “The question we must now ask ourselves is how this summer will be remembered: as the first in a long series of record-breaking summers, or as a moment when we rise to the challenge of adaptation and mitigation by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.” France thus joins Belgium and the United Kingdom in recording the hottest summer of the year, following a season of extreme temperatures across Europe, a continent among those experiencing the fastest rates of temperature rise in the world. (End) M.B. / S.A.M.