Greta Thunberg has said the UK’s leaders have ‘their heads completely buried in the sand’ over the climate crisis as a 40°C heatwave hits the country.
The climate activist, 23, told Metro that the blistering temperatures – which could break the record for June – are ‘only the beginning’.
The scorching heat is expected to last until at least Thursday after the Met Office issued a four-day extreme heat warning across large parts of England and Wales.
The alert indicates the weather could be a risk to life, with temperatures forecast to rise as high as 40C in parts of the UK.
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Speaking out about the heatwave, Thunberg told Metro: ‘This is what experts have been warning about for decades.
‘We know that the climate crisis is here and now, and not a faraway threat in the future, and those suffering the most are the ones who have contributed the least to cause it.’
She continued: ‘This is unfortunately only the beginning.’
This week’s high temperatures are being driven by a ‘heat-dome’ settling over western Europe, which is when an area of high pressure gets ‘stuck’ over one place, trapping warm air undernearth.
Scientists say that human-caused climate change has supercharged this phenomenon and made them more intense and frequent.
The record for the hottest ever May was broken last month, after parts of London hit 34.8°C.
Forecasters have now said there is ‘growing confidence’ this week could break the record for the hottest ever June of 35.6C, which was set in 1976 in Southampton.
Thunberg became the face of the global Fridays for Future movement protesting against inaction over climate change in 2018.
She led school walkouts as a teenager, including an event held in Bristol in 2020 attended by 15,000 people.
The campaigner said: ‘What is most concerning about this is not only that we continuously shatter heat records and destabilise the entire biosphere way faster than models have been predicting, but that it is not treated as the existential crisis it is in media and politics.
‘The UKs responsibility for the climate crisis cannot be overstated, still its leaders continue acting as if there was no tomorrow.’
Thunberg went on to claim that British leaders have their ‘heads completely buried in the sand with pockets lined up with dirty money’.
Climate campaigners have long complained about the links between political parties and the fossil fuel industry.
Research reported by the Guardian in 2025 shows that government ministers met representatives from the fossil fuel industry more than 500 times during Labour’s first year in power.
The government defended the meetings at the time, saying they were part of their focus on driving ‘forward our clean energy superpower mission’.
The UK has also faced calls to pay climate reparations.
Campaigners argue that the UK and other western countries became rich through centuries of high-fossil fuel use, with the consequences disproportionately affecting poorer countries in the Global South.
Activists want the UK to provide climate grants and other funding to help make up for this inbalance.
Thunberg backed those calls, telling Metro: ‘It’s about time for the UK to repay its climate debt and limit the worst consequences of a crisis people are already dying from, which there is still time to do.’
Some schools in the red warning area will be shutting their doors early to protect students from the worst of the heat.
The Wren Academy in north London, is one, saying it would close at 1.50pm for three days this week to protect staff and pupils.
The UK government argues they are a global leader in decarbonisation and securing investment in clean energy industries.
The UK has reduced emissions by over 50% while growing the economy by over 80% since 1990.
The UK also remains committed to reaching net zero by 2050, which means that the total greenhouse gas emissions would be equal to the emissions removed from the atmosphere.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has been contacted for comment.
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