Singapore’s cooling strategy, pioneered by founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, has come in for praise in Europe, which is sweltering under a deadly heatwave. Even Tesla founder and world’s first trillionaire Elon Musk has weighed in, calling the late statesman “a genius”.
Record-breaking temperatures in countries including Britain, France and Germany have killed dozens, overwhelmed hospitals and led to the closure of schools and cultural sites.
Mercury in Paris hit a June record of 40.9 degrees Celsius (106 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday. The peak on Thursday was just under 40 degrees at Parc Montsouris in the south of the French capital.
Temperatures surged to 36.7 degrees in southwest England on Thursday, provisionally making it the hottest June day recorded in the UK, surpassing a record set just a day earlier, the Met Office said.
Hospitals in Paris also faced an influx of patients grappling with the “savage” heatwave that UN climate chief Simon Stiell said was “the latest price to pay for fossil fuel pollution baking our planet”.