BRUSSELS, Sept 10 (Reuters) - The heatwaves that hit Europe this summer have heaped more inflationary pressures on the region which could also face a winter fuel crisis, said the United Nations' climate secretary Simon Stiell on Thursday.
Many European countries experienced intense heatwaves and wildfires, with August registered as the world's joint-hottest month on record, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
"The EU's summer of hellish heat comes on top of the ongoing fossil fuel cost crisis – and both are driving up prices for households, businesses and governments, in a deathly double-blow. Dependence on volatile fossil fuel imports has long been an economic Achilles' heel for Europe," Stiell told a European Parliament committee in Brussels on Thursday.
"This year – again – households and businesses have been hit with higher bills. Now, another European winter fuel crisis is looming, due to fossil fuel dependency," added Stiell, who is Executive Secretary of the U.N. climate change arm UNFCCC.
(Reporting by Kate Abnett;Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)