Wildfire Rages Near Athens, Threatens Homes

Flames burn trees on a hill during a wildfire in Voula suburb, in southern Athens, Greece, Saturday, June 4, 2022. (AP)
Flames burn trees on a hill during a wildfire in Voula suburb, in southern Athens, Greece, Saturday, June 4, 2022. (AP)
TT

Wildfire Rages Near Athens, Threatens Homes

Flames burn trees on a hill during a wildfire in Voula suburb, in southern Athens, Greece, Saturday, June 4, 2022. (AP)
Flames burn trees on a hill during a wildfire in Voula suburb, in southern Athens, Greece, Saturday, June 4, 2022. (AP)

A wildfire raged on the outskirts of Athens on Saturday, threatening homes and power lines, a fire brigade official said.

Fanned by strong winds, the fire quickly spread across the slopes of Mount Hymettus which overlooks the Greek capital, sending thick clouds of smoke over the southern suburbs.

Civil protection authorities started precautionary evacuations in some parts of the Voula and Glyfada regions about 20 kilometers from Athens center.

"The winds are very intense, we have damage in a few houses and some cars, no injuries," said the fire brigade official who declined to be named.

More than 100 firefighters aided by six firefighting aircraft and 4 helicopters fought the blaze that started after midday in the city's suburb of Glyfada, the fire brigade said.

A spate of wildfires scorched about 300,000 acres of forest and bushland in different parts of Greece last summer, amid the country's worst heatwave in 30 years.



Pay up or Face Climate-Led Disaster for Humanity, UN Chief Warns COP29 Summit

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers his speech at the UN Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, 12 November 2024. (EPA)
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers his speech at the UN Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, 12 November 2024. (EPA)
TT

Pay up or Face Climate-Led Disaster for Humanity, UN Chief Warns COP29 Summit

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers his speech at the UN Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, 12 November 2024. (EPA)
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers his speech at the UN Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, 12 November 2024. (EPA)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told world leaders at the COP29 summit on Tuesday to "pay up" to prevent climate-led humanitarian disasters, and said time was running out to limit a destructive rise in global temperatures.

Nearly 200 nations have gathered at the annual UN climate summit in Baku, focused this year on raising hundreds of billions of dollars to fund a global transition to cleaner energy sources and limit the climate damage caused by carbon emissions.

But on the day of the summit designed to bring together world leaders and generate political momentum for the marathon negotiations, many of the leading players were not present to hear Guterres' message. After victory for Donald Trump, a climate change denier, in the US presidential election, President Joe Biden will not attend. Chinese President Xi Jinping has sent a deputy and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is not attending because of political developments in Brussels.

"On climate finance, the world must pay up, or humanity will pay the price," Guterres said in a speech. "The sound you hear is the ticking clock. We are in the final countdown to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius and time is not on our side."

This year is set to be the hottest on record. Scientists say evidence shows global warming and its impacts are unfolding faster than expected and the world may already have hit 1.5 degree Celsius (2.7 F) of warming above the average pre-industrial temperature - a critical threshold beyond which it is at risk of irreversible and extreme climate change.

As COP29 began, unusual east coast US wildfires that triggered air quality warnings for New York continued to grow. In Spain, survivors are coming to terms with the worst floods in the country's modern history and the Spanish government has announced billions of euros for reconstruction.