Europe swelters, but its politicians still aren’t feeling the heat

Good afternoon.

In April, scientists at Copernicus, the Earth observation unit of the EU’s space agency, said that 2024 was the warmest year on record, and that Europe is the fastest-warming continent.

This first extreme heatwave of 2025 brought a frightening reminder of how the climate emergency is making Europe’s heatwaves more intense than ever. Temperatures in Spain spiked to an insufferable 46C and nudged even higher in one district of Portugal. Half of Italy’s regions placed limits on outdoor working and 50,000 people in Turkey were evacuated from the path of wildfires. One of the factors is that the Mediterranean has been warmer by up to 6C than is usual for June.

The wave moved northward on Tuesday, prompting the closure of thousands of overheated schools in France and the Netherlands. The top of the Eiffel Tower was shut to tourists as 38C heat bore down on Paris. On Wednesday, dozens of German cities were tackling water shortages in 40C conditions.

This, we are told, is the “new normal”. Yet some of Europe’s politicians seem not to be feeling the heat. Key elements of the “green deal”, the EU’s flagship climate policy, are being abandoned, as the Guardian’s Ajit Niranjan reported. Rules on deforestation, pollution and the protection of wildlife have been watered down in response to political pressure. A bill to outlaw corporate “greenwashing” hangs in the balance. The EU is legally committed to net zero by 2050, but the Guardian’s environment editor, Fiona Harvey, revealed that Brussels could weaken interim 2040 goals by letting EU governments “buy” controversial carbon offsets from developing countries.

In a sweltering conference room in Italy at an event last week on the future of Europe, I heard one panellist argue that political support for EU climate rules – such as a ban on combustion engine cars by 2035 – is slipping because “you are asking voters to accept measures whose benefits will accrue only to people who have not yet been born”.

Yet an overwhelming majority in the EU say they want the crisis to be tackled now, as a priority. And no empathy with future generations is required if you can feel, in the flesh, the effects of a “heat dome” (a cocktail of high pressure and hot air) hovering over you.

The mayors of London and Paris recently blamed a “tide of disinformation” and fossil fuel interests for delaying climate action. “Political cowardice” is the issue, the EU green transition chief Teresa Ribera told Sam Jones. Will the latest extreme weather focus minds on how we tackle all, or any, of the above?

Stay updated on climate and other breaking stories with Jakub Krupa’s live blog.

The shameful colonial legacy of Denmark’s ‘parenting competency’ tests

Donald Trump’s threat to seize Greenland put the Danish Arctic territory on the geopolitical map – but also exposed tensions over Denmark’s treatment of Greenland. This week, Miranda Bryant, the Guardian’s Nordic correspondent, told the shocking story of Keira Kronvold, a Greenlandic Inuit woman; her case now a symbol of a shameful colonial legacy. Here, Miranda expands on the story.

“I first heard about Keira Kronvold in November 2024, two days after she had given birth to her daughter Zammi. Zammi was removed from her mother by Danish social services when she was just three hours old and placed with a Danish foster family. Zammi was the third of Keira’s children to be taken into care shortly after birth. Keira, who like many Greenlandic people lives in Denmark,was not ready to be interviewed, but word of her case was rapidly spreading on social media. And soon there were protests in Nuuk, the Greenland capital, and Copenhagen. Keira had shared a video on Facebook about her horrifying situation.

“As I spoke with activists, human rights organisations and Keira – via an intermediary at first, and later in person – three letters, FKU, kept coming up. Keira had undergone ‘parenting competency’ tests (known as forældrekompetenceundersøgelse, or FKU) before the removal of all of her three children.

“These tests, used to assess whether parents were suitable to care for their children, are viewed by many experts as culturally discriminatory against people from Inuit backgrounds.

“Keira’s case was in fact one of many. Unusually, despite the trauma of being separated by force from her child, she had found the courage to speak out. I travelled to meet Keira at her home in the Danish town of Thisted, with photographer Juliette Pavy.

”Greenland’s autonomous government had argued for a ban on the FKU tests and Denmark had long refused a ban but days before the inauguration of Donald Trump there was a surprise U-turn. The timing of the announcement, with the global spotlight on Greenland, only confirmed to campaigners that Danish politicians only pay attention to the welfare of Greenland and the Inuit minority in Denmark when there is something in it for them.

“Aka Hansen, an Inuit film-maker, told me at the time that if it had not been for the highly publicised visit of Donald Trump Jr to Nuuk in January, sparking fears of an imminent US takeover attempt, ‘nothing would have happened’.

“Outside Greenland – not least in Denmark – there has been shock that many Greenlandic people have been open to considering closer cooperation with the US. But as the territory’s former prime minister, Múte Egede, said, Greenlanders had ‘had enough’ of being told they should be grateful to Copenhagen for being good colonial masters.

“Meanwhile, the victims of Denmark’s multiple scandals against Greenland continue to wait for justice.”

Editor’s picks

Opinion and analysis

Life, arts and culture