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People on the streets of Rome, June 2022. Heatwave-related deaths in Europe have increased by about 30% over the past 20 years, according to a new report.
Alessandra Tarantino/AP
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Alessandra Tarantino/AP
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People on the streets of Rome, June 2022. Heatwave-related deaths in Europe have increased by about 30% over the past 20 years, according to a new report.
Alessandra Tarantino/AP
Europe is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, and the heat is killing many people during the summer months, according to a new report from European climate experts.
Heat-related deaths on the continent have increased by at least 30% over the past 20 years, according to an analysis by Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service and the United Nations.
“The impact on human health is more pronounced in cities, where most people live,” says José Álvaro Silva of the UN World Meteorological Organization. Cities are warming faster than rural areas, not only because populations are concentrated in urban areas, but also because buildings and roads stay warm longer.
The summer of 2023 was a clear example of how dangerous heat can be for Europeans. During the July heatwave, the intense heat and humidity made it feel like almost half of southern Europe was over 110 degrees hotter.
This is weather where people could die without air conditioning. The final death toll from the heat wave is still being calculated, but will almost certainly be in the tens of thousands, researchers say. One study estimated that more than 60,000 people would die prematurely in July 2023 due to the heat wave.
“Extreme heat causes the greatest mortality of all extreme climates,” says Chris Hewitt, director of the World Meteorological Organization.
Europe's rapid warming is being driven by three factors. The continent is close to the Arctic, the fastest warming region on Earth. It is also located near naturally warm oceans and atmospheric currents. This is why winters in London are much milder than in Chicago, despite being further north.
But this also means that Europe is warming dangerously faster than regions at similar latitudes, explains Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
“We continue to see new records being broken,” says Burgess.
The dangers posed by heat have left many European cities scrambling to provide residents with access to air conditioning and reliable electricity to power them even on the hottest days. Some of the deadliest heat waves around the world have been linked to power outages that cripple power grids during extremely hot weather.
The new report has good news. Europe is increasingly turning to solar and wind power for its electricity supply, and these energy sources are becoming increasingly reliable. 2023 marked the second year in a row that the continent produced more electricity from renewables than from burning fossil fuels.
Shifting our electricity away from oil, gas and coal will help Europe reduce emissions of global warming greenhouse gases, which will help curb future catastrophic warming.