A new study says record-breaking temperatures in Europe this summer contributed to the deaths of more than 50,000 people, with human-caused climate change accounting for nearly two-thirds of the total deaths.
An alarming situation!
The researchers classified heat-related deaths according to different age groups in 854 European cities during recurring heat waves in June, July and August, and found that 50,391 people died due to high temperatures. Of these, 32,619 people died due to excess heat resulting from burning coal, oil and gas, according to a study that will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Nature Health.
This number exceeds by 71% the death toll of the deadliest summer recorded in 2022, with 29,480 deaths, according to a study prepared by the same researchers earlier this month to track deaths related to the summer heat in those European cities.
Numbers do not reflect the whole situation
The study's authors pointed out that these numbers are an underestimate, since they do not include the deadly heat wave in May, and are limited only to deaths in 854 cities that constitute about 40% of Europe's population.
About a third of the deaths occurred from June 17 to July 1, a particularly intense heatwave when temperatures were 3.5 degrees Celsius above normal, said Garivalos Konstantinoudis, a co-author of the study and a biostatistician at Imperial College London.
“In most parts of western and northern Europe, our infrastructure is simply not designed to handle the kind of temperatures we are seeing now due to the effects of human-induced warming,” said Claire Barnes, lead researcher and climate scientist at Imperial College London. She added that some European cities this summer recorded temperatures 12 degrees Celsius warmer than normal.
Who is responsible?
The study also found that among these 50,000 people, more than 32,000 people died due to excessive heat caused by human-caused climate change.
The study indicated that Italy, France, Spain and Germany recorded the highest numbers of deaths. Of all European capitals, Rome had the highest total of heat-related deaths from 2000 to 2025, according to the team's study released earlier this month.
It is noteworthy that climate research attributes the record heat wave to global warming caused by human activities. A study conducted by the "World Weather Attribution" initiative concluded that maximum temperatures during the day and night during the heat wave in late June would have been considered almost impossible 50 years ago, according to the German newspaper "The Welt" website.
A call to intensify efforts!
Scientists believe that deaths resulting from the heat were not limited only to the elderly, as it is estimated that about 6,000 out of 50,000 people who died due to the heat were under the age of 65, according to what was reported by the German Tages Schuhe website.
Epidemiologist Pierre Maslow, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, stressed that “evidence is mounting that our cities are not well prepared for rising temperatures, and it is necessary to intensify adaptation efforts.”
