European city temperatures rise

Summer temperatures have risen sharply in most west European capital cities over the past 30 years, adding to evidence of the accelerating impact of climate change, the environmental group WWF said.

WWF International blamed most of the warming on pollution from power stations rather than road traffic.

Between 2000 and 2004, average temperatures in 13 of the 16 cities surveyed were at least 1 deg C higher than during the first five years of the 1970s.

The largest rise between June and late September was 2.2 deg C in Madrid. Dublin and Copenhagen had the lowest increases of just 0.7 deg C and 0.2 deg C respectively.