Heat killed ‘staggering’ 50,000 people in Europe’s cities this summer, scientists warn

Morgues and funeral homes filled with bodies from June to August as the heat added by planet-baking pollution cut short an extra 32,000 lives in urban areas. Hot days pushed vulnerable bodies into overdrive and warm nights prevented them from recovering. The "staggering" death toll, modelled using historical relationships between heat and health in 854 cities, was the worst on record, with hot weather marked by relentless heatwaves killing nearly twice as many people as it did in each of the two next most dangerous years.

Climate's growing role

The share of deaths due to climate breakdown has risen from about 40% at the start of the century to 65% this summer, the study found. "In some sense, the absolute numbers of the heat-related deaths estimated across the 854 urban areas are indeed staggering," said Malcolm Mistry, a climate and health scientist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, who co-authored the study. "But perhaps what is even more alarming is the proportion of these deaths that we attribute to anthropogenic climate change."

Regional impact

People succumbed to heat at the highest rates in Malta, Italy and Hungary, while absolute death tolls were greatest in Italy, France, Spain, Germany and the UK. Because death certificates rarely record contributing factors such as dangerous temperatures that push a stroke victim or lung cancer patient past their limits, families rarely know that heat and human activity hastened their relatives' death. "These shocking figures represent thousands of families who have lost a loved one this summer due to the climate crisis," said Katie White, the climate transition minister for the UK, where scientists estimated 4,354 heat deaths this summer.

Urban crisis

In Naples, the hardest-hit city on the continent, 815 people per million died from the heat according to the study's age-standardized estimates. Mario Guarino, an emergency doctor at Ospedale CTO in the north of the city, said he witnessed a 15% increase in emergency room visits during the hottest weeks. The "defining characteristic" of the period was the complexity of health problems exacerbated by heat, he added, with loneliness and poverty worsening the situation further.

Vulnerable populations

The study found people over the age of 85 made up almost half of the death toll, though younger people were not immune, with 833 people between the age of 20 and 44 also thought to have died due to the heat. The scientists said the death toll from the cities studied, which account for about 40% of the European population, could not be easily extrapolated to estimate the full death toll including those in towns and villages.

"The real epidemic these days is loneliness," said Guarino. "Many elderly people are left alone during the summer, abandoned by their families, and due to their low income, they can't afford air conditioning or, if they do have it, avoid turning it on because of the cost of electricity." Doctors have urged governments to burn fewer fossil fuels while bolstering health systems, greening cities, rolling out air conditioning and encouraging people to drink water and seek shade.