France, Aug. 25 -- The harvest has begun earlier this year across France's wine-producing regions, with extreme temperatures due to climate change causing grapes to ripen earlier. Heatwaves and wildfires can also mean a loss of crops and land, and an increase in diseases and pests.

Grape harvests in France are starting on average three weeks earlier than in the 1980s, according to the National Institute for Agricultural, Food and Environmental Research (Inrae).

Rising temperatures - which scientists confirm are due to human-driven climate change - are accelerating vine growth, with grapes ripening earlier.

In Alsace, eastern France, the harvest has never started so early. The harvest of grapes that make the sparkling white wine cremant...