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Study / Climate change tripled the number of deaths from the recent heat wave in Europe

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Study / Climate change tripled the number of deaths from the recent heat wave in Europe

Politiko 2025-07-09 20:26:06

Study / Climate change tripled the number of deaths from the recent heat wave in

Global warming pollution tripled the death toll from the heatwave that swept across Europe in late June, according to an analysis covering a dozen cities, as experts warned of a worsening health crisis that is being overlooked . 

Scientists estimate that high heat killed 2,300 people in 12 major cities as temperatures soared across Europe between June 23 and July 2. They attributed 1,500 deaths to climate disruption, which has warmed the planet. 

Milan was the hardest-hit city in absolute terms, with 317 of the 499 heat deaths attributed to climate disruption, followed by Paris and Barcelona. London had 273 heat deaths, 171 of which the researchers attributed to human influence on the climate.

"This study shows why heatwaves are known as silent killers," said Malcolm Mistry, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and co-author of the study. "While a few deaths have been reported in Spain, France and Italy, thousands more people are expected to have died as a result of the high temperatures."

The analysis by the World Weather Attribution group, which used established methods but has not yet been submitted for peer review, blames climate disruption for two-thirds of the deaths.

Older people had the highest mortality, the study found, with 88% of climate-related deaths occurring in people over the age of 65. The researchers said the extreme heat was an "underestimated" threat as most victims died away from the public eye in homes and hospitals, and with little media coverage.

Scientists used epidemiological models to estimate heat-related mortality in cities such as Paris, London, Madrid and Rome over a 10-day period.

They cautioned that the relationships between temperature and death they used in their models were derived from local mortality data up to 2019, and so may not fully capture how people in each city have adapted to hotter weather over time.

They found that climate disruption pushed temperatures in some cities up to 4 degrees Celsius higher, resulting in 1,500 additional deaths. The death toll was greater than that of other recent weather disasters that were exacerbated by pollution from fossil fuels, such as floods that killed 224 people in Spain in 2024 and floods that killed 243 people across northwestern Europe in 2021.

Previous studies have estimated that around 44,000 people die from heat in Europe each year, on average over recent decades. Scientists suggested that the high death toll of 2,300 people from a single heatwave in just 12 cities could make this summer particularly dangerous.

 

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