France records over 5,700 excess deaths in June heat wave

PARIS (AFP) — France recorded 5,764 more deaths than usual during a record-breaking heat wave last month, health authorities said on Wednesday, describing the excess mortality among people aged 15 and older as “unprecedented.”

It was the highest excess mortality rate during a heat wave in the country since a devastating episode of high temperatures in 2003 that killed around 15,000 people, they added.

Three heat waves have swept across France since May, the latest in increasingly frequent such extreme weather events that scientists have linked to man-made climate change.

The soaring temperatures caused havoc in a country where many homes, schools and hospitals are not designed for heat and do not have air conditioning.

They have also dried up riverbeds and sparked wildfires, including one that last week ravaged a tenth of the vast UNESCO-listed forest of Fontainebleau outside Paris.

The extra deaths between June 17 and July 2 this year were due to “all causes” — none yet clearly linked to the heat, Santé Publique France said, saying final figures would be published in the autumn.

In comparison, the country reported 5,722 excess fatalities linked to high temperatures between June and mid-September last year.

Of the excess deaths last month, around two-thirds were people aged 75 or older, while less than a fifth were aged 45 to 64.

Half passed away in just three days from June 25 to 27.

Environment minister stays on under climate pressure

France’s environment minister will remain in her post, given the “urgency” to act on climate change, after submitting her resignation to President Emmanuel Macron over a bill to reintroduce bee-harming pesticides, her team said Wednesday.

Monique Barbut announced her departure on Wednesday morning, just weeks after the opposition accused the government of failing to prepare for increasingly frequent heat waves scientists say are fueled by man-made climate change.

She submitted her resignation to Macron over her disagreement with Parliament on Tuesday backing the restricted reintroduction of two insecticides banned in France but allowed in the European Union.

“Contrary to the commitments that had been made to me, the government prevented any debate on the removal of this measure,” Barbut, the former head of WWF France, wrote on LinkedIn. “Politics is not my world, and if this is what politics is about, it definitely never will be.”

But Macron did not accept her resignation and “assured her of his support,” her office told AFP.

Barbut — also former executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification will stay due to the “urgency to address the consequences of climate change,” her team added.

Paris deaths spike

France last month recorded its hottest June since records began in 1947 with a heat wave that saw temperatures spike above 100 F in many places.

The average temperatures on June 24 and 25, 2026, were the highest ever recorded in France, all months combined.

Deaths in the Paris region rose by 80%, Santé Publique France said, after saying last week they doubled in the week of June 22 to 28.

During that last week of June, four young children died across France after finding themselves trapped in boiling hot cars.

This did not however appear to affect official death rates for that age category.

At least 300 more people died than usual during an uncommonly early first heat wave in May.

Scientists have said human-caused climate change was “unequivocally” responsible for the intensity of the heat wave that battered Europe in late June.

Of the 53 heat waves recorded nationwide since 1947 until late June, half have occurred since 2010, according to national met office Meteo-France.

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By Agence France-Presse, with MAXENCE D’AVERSA.