Europe’s summer heatwaves and wildfires have intensified inflationary pressure from elevated fossil-fuel costs, while the region could face another winter fuel crisis, United Nations climate secretary Simon Stiell said in Brussels. August was recorded as the world’s joint-hottest month on record by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), the bloc’s climate-monitoring service. Stiell told a European Parliament committee that extreme heat had compounded the continuing fossil-fuel cost crisis, raising expenses for households, businesses and governments. He said Europe’s reliance on volatile fossil-fuel imports remained an economic vulnerability and contributed to higher bills and the prospect of another winter fuel crisis.