According to the European Commission, around 95% of all fatalities linked to weather and climate-related extremes in Europe over the past four decades have been associated with heatwaves. In 2023 alone, extreme heat claimed an estimated 48,000 lives across the continent, making it by far Europe’s deadliest climate hazard.
The figures illustrate how climate risk is changing. While floods and wildfires often capture public attention because of their sudden destruction, prolonged heatwaves are becoming an increasingly serious public health emergency, particularly as Europe continues to warm faster than any other continent.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) has described Europe as the world’s fastest-warming continent, with climate change already threatening public health, food and water security, infrastructure, ecosystems and economic stability. These risks are expected to intensify unless both greenhouse gas emissions are reduced and societies become better prepared for the impacts that can no longer be avoided. says the EEA.
The annual EU Day for the Victims of the Global Climate Crisis, established jointly by the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission in 2023, reflects this changing reality. Observed every 15 July—the anniversary of one of the deadliest days of the 2021 floods in Germany and Belgium—it commemorates those who have lost their lives while also encouraging greater preparedness for future climate-related disasters.
A woman uses a fan while holding a baby amid heatwave, during Mass led by Pope Leo on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles, in St Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 29, 2026. REUTERS/Yara Nardi
That emphasis on preparedness marks an important evolution in Europe’s approach to climate change.
For decades, climate policy focused primarily on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to limit future warming. While that remains essential, policymakers increasingly recognise that many impacts are already unavoidable. The challenge is therefore no longer only how to prevent climate change, but also how to protect people from its growing consequences.
Heat illustrates that challenge better than any other hazard.
Unlike floods or wildfires, extreme heat rarely causes immediate, dramatic deaths. Instead, it exacerbates cardiovascular disease, respiratory illnesses, kidney disorders and heat stroke, placing particular strain on older adults, infants, outdoor workers and people with underlying health conditions. Many heat-related deaths are never directly attributed to high temperatures on death certificates, making the true toll difficult to measure.
A sign reading ‘During intense heat protect yourself’ is seen inside an air-conditioned room open to the public inside the 17th district city hall as temperatures rise in Paris, during a heatwave affecting a majority of the country, in France, June 25, 2026. REUTERS/Alice Sacco
The World Health Organization estimates that climate change will cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths every year between 2030 and 2050 from heat stress, undernutrition, malaria and diarrhoeal disease alone. Climate disasters are also increasingly associated with anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, adding a growing mental health burden to the physical impacts.
For Greece, these findings carry particular significance as the Mediterranean is warming substantially faster than the global average. Meanwhile, cities face particular challenges. According to the European Commission’s information toolkit, temperatures in urban areas can be 10 to 15 degrees Celsius higher than surrounding rural areas because of the urban heat island effect, significantly increasing heat stress during extreme weather events.
A thermometer displays the temperature on a hot day, in Rovaniemi, Finland, July 15, 2025. REUTERS/Alexander Kuznetsov
The consequences extend well beyond health.
Weather- and climate-related disasters have caused an estimated €822 billion in economic losses across the European Union since 1980, with one-quarter of those losses occurring between 2021 and 2024 alone. Floods, storms, droughts and wildfires continue to damage homes, businesses, agriculture and critical infrastructure, while disrupting local economies long after the immediate emergency has passed.
The European Commission argues that adaptation is now as important as mitigation. That means investing in early warning systems, strengthening civil protection, making hospitals more resilient, redesigning cities to cope with extreme heat, restoring natural ecosystems that reduce climate risks and ensuring communities are better prepared before disasters strike. The cost of these measures, the Commission notes, is modest compared with the human and economic cost of inaction.
This year, the Commission is expected to present a new European Integrated Framework for Climate Resilience, aimed at strengthening Europe’s preparedness for a future in which climate-related hazards become increasingly frequent and severe.
An elderly man trying to beat the heat in the shade in the National Garden of Athens.
