Record-breaking heatwaves, drought and wildfires are driving a surge in eco-anxiety across France, with some sufferers "paralysed" by panic attacks, unable to work and, in the most severe cases, experiencing suicidal thoughts.
Issued on: 21/08/2026 - RFI
This summer's unprecedented temperatures, drought and wildfires have further fuelled anxiety over climate change. AP - Claude Paris
By: Alison Hird with RFI
"I had to stop working, it was impossible for me to think about anything else," said 32-year-old engineer André.
Like millions of other French people, he is suffering from eco-anxiety, fuelled by this summer's heat and drought – and the constant exposure to images of raging fires, devastated forests, dried-out rivers and animals and birds suffering.
The panic attacks he experienced were so severe, he had to go on sick leave during the two-week heatwave that began in mid-June.
"I was completely paralysed and unable to concentrate," he told news agency AFP, adding that he was particularly upset by thoughts of "the summers to come".
He declined to give his full name, partly because of concerns about his employer and party due to the sense of shame he feels
Additional 2.5 million sufferers
The term "eco-anxiety" was coined in 1996 by Véronique Lapaige, a Belgian-Canadian public health researcher. It describes "a hybrid phenomenon and identity-related distress" linked to growing awareness of the upheaval facing the planet and difficulty picturing the future.
A study by the French government-funded Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME), published in 2025, found that 16.6 million French people showed symptoms of psychological distress linked to the environment.
The figures are particularly high among those aged 25 to 34, who struggle to picture a future in a world marked by global warming.
Pierre-Eric Sutter, a psychotherapist and director of France's eco-anxiety observatory (OBESCA), draws a distinction between long-term eco-anxiety and a more recent, event-driven version triggered by this summer's heatwaves, wildfires – particularly those in Gironde – and drought.
The observatory's most recent research, to be published in September, reveals that wildfires and heatwaves alone have "pushed 2.5 million more French people into eco-anxiety this summer – up from 12.5 million to 15.1 million people", Sutter told RFI.
Given their survey was carried out during the third peak of the heatwave, Sutter notes that the true figures could be "even higher".
The rise in climate anxiety has prompted the government to launch an online information campaign about the phenomenon.
More serious conditions
While not classed as an illness itself, eco-anxiety can turn into one, Sutter said. Sufferers can go on to develop conditions such as reactive depression or generalised anxiety disorder, as worry about climate change builds into what he described as a cognitive and emotional overload.
"The more you follow the subject, the more you realise the planet isn't doing well, that there's a lot of pollution, and that the risks from heatwaves and fires are set to grow and intensify over time," the more likely this is, he said.
He identified seven degrees of anxiety nothing that in the most serious cases, sufferers can develop suicidal thoughts, picturing a future so bleak that they begin to wonder what the point of living in such a world would be.
The psychotherapist pointed to a 2021 study by The Lancet showing that 39 percent of young people, including in France, are hesitant to have children due to fears over climate change.
The term "eco-anxiety" was coined in 1996 by Véronique Lapaige, a Belgian-Canadian public health researcher. It describes "a hybrid phenomenon and identity-related distress" linked to growing awareness of the upheaval facing the planet and difficulty picturing the future.
A study by the French government-funded Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME), published in 2025, found that 16.6 million French people showed symptoms of psychological distress linked to the environment.
The figures are particularly high among those aged 25 to 34, who struggle to picture a future in a world marked by global warming.
Pierre-Eric Sutter, a psychotherapist and director of France's eco-anxiety observatory (OBESCA), draws a distinction between long-term eco-anxiety and a more recent, event-driven version triggered by this summer's heatwaves, wildfires – particularly those in Gironde – and drought.
The observatory's most recent research, to be published in September, reveals that wildfires and heatwaves alone have "pushed 2.5 million more French people into eco-anxiety this summer – up from 12.5 million to 15.1 million people", Sutter told RFI.
Given their survey was carried out during the third peak of the heatwave, Sutter notes that the true figures could be "even higher".
The rise in climate anxiety has prompted the government to launch an online information campaign about the phenomenon.
More serious conditions
While not classed as an illness itself, eco-anxiety can turn into one, Sutter said. Sufferers can go on to develop conditions such as reactive depression or generalised anxiety disorder, as worry about climate change builds into what he described as a cognitive and emotional overload.
"The more you follow the subject, the more you realise the planet isn't doing well, that there's a lot of pollution, and that the risks from heatwaves and fires are set to grow and intensify over time," the more likely this is, he said.
He identified seven degrees of anxiety nothing that in the most serious cases, sufferers can develop suicidal thoughts, picturing a future so bleak that they begin to wonder what the point of living in such a world would be.
The psychotherapist pointed to a 2021 study by The Lancet showing that 39 percent of young people, including in France, are hesitant to have children due to fears over climate change.
'A sense of apocalypse'
Sutter's approach to treating eco-anxiety involves cutting down exposure to the flood of bad news, learning to make peace with your fears, and taking action within what is realistically in your power.
"We’ll need to set ourselves goals that are achievable with our own resources and means... by adapting our homes, travel habits and lifestyles to the new climate reality, as we transition in mainland France from a temperate climate to a Mediterranean one," he said.
Joining support groups to break the feeling of solitude can also be helpful, he notes.
Ground down by the 24/7 media coverage of the heatwave fallout, 59-year-old Cyril Chedeville from Gironde recently joined the support group Makesense, which has been running sessions since 2025.
"I felt a sense of apocalypse this summer, I had to leave social media, I was terrified at the thought of watching the news," he said.
Thanks to the group, he says he "no longer feels alone" and can talk with people who "share the same thing".
Searching for meaning amid the changes to the climate is also important.
"In most cases", taking part in an ecological cause is a key step, said Anne-Catherine Lanchou, a doctor and public speaker on eco-anxiety. "It starts to get better when you get into action, when you tell yourself that you too have a role to play."
But there's only so much individuals can do. For philosopher Céline Marty, a specialist in political ecology, the political silence on the heatwave is “deafening” – and is also feeding anxiety.
“We’re carrying on as if nothing were wrong, we’re not slowing down and we’re leaving people to fend for themselves," she told Le Monde. "Yet we’re in this situation precisely because the state has failed to address the issue of adaptation.”
The risk, she says, is that we will gradually drift into accepting the unacceptable. “We're going to get used to seeing people die at work or at home, amid the indifference of a system where the only thing that matters is that ‘bodies hold out’ so that the machine keeps turning."
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