Young women use fans and mini ventilators to cool off in the overheated Paris metro during a severe heatwave in Paris, France, on Monday.
Abaca Press/SIPAPRE/AP

The World Health Organization has urged leaders to prioritize climate action amid this week’s heat wave in Europe.

“Europe’s heat wave is closing schools and putting people’s health at risk,” director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote in a post on X.

“The data are clear: temperatures across Europe are rising at roughly twice the global average rate, increasing the likelihood and severity of extreme heat in the future,” he added.

Tedros urged: “We cannot afford further delay.”

“Leaders must prioritise investment in climate-resilient health systems, while also accelerating (climate action) and mitigating the drivers of the climate crisis,” he added.