Macron vows to rebuild and replant by ‘different rules’ after French fires
President calls for European fleet of firefighting planes, as blazes continue in parts of Greece, Portugal and Spain
Vast swathes of blackened pine forest in south-west France are to be replanted and homes and businesses rebuilt “according to different rules” dictated by the climate crisis, Emmanuel Macron has said, as he called for a European fleet of planes to fight wildfires.
A week of 40C-plus heat – part of a global trend of rising temperatures, widely attributed by scientists to human activity – has caused misery from Portugal to the UK, smashing records and fuelling fires that have ravaged tens of thousands of hectares of land.