Europe’s summer heatwaves have added to inflationary pressures and heightened concerns about another winter fuel crisis, United Nations climate official Simon Stiell said. Many European countries endured intense heat and wildfires, while 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 in Brussels that the heat emergency was compounding the continuing fossil-fuel cost crisis, increasing expenses for households, businesses and governments. He said Europe’s dependence on volatile fossil-fuel imports remains an economic vulnerability and warned that fossil-fuel dependency is contributing to higher bills and the prospect of another winter fuel crisis.