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Date Published: 11/07/2023

Extreme heat killed 61,600 people in Europe last summer

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In Spain, 11,300 died as a direct result of heatwaves in three months

Extreme heat killed 61,600 people in Europe last summer

The acceleration of global warming and increasingly frequent heatwaves are having a deadly impact across the planet. There can be little doubt that the climate crisis kills and in the summer of 2022, the hottest ever on record, 61,672 people died from the extreme heat in Europe, 11,324 of them in Spain.

This is according to a study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) published in the journal Nature Medicine, which analysed data between May 30 and September 4, 2022. To arrive at their terrifying conclusion, the researchers examined a total population of 543 million people across 823 regions in 35 different European countries.

While the summer of 2023 already looks set to break the record, last year was marked by a succession of heatwaves and temperatures remained well above average throughout. In fact, between July 18 and 24 alone, an astonishing 11,637 heat-related deaths were recorded in Europe.

The deadliest countries

By far the country with the highest mortality rate was Italy, reporting a total of 18,010 deaths. Worryingly, it was followed by Spain, with 11,324 fatalities and Germany, a long way behind, with 8,173.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the study pointed to a marked increase in the number of deaths in older people, and especially in women: the experts estimate that last year, there were 4,822 deaths among those under 65 years of age, 9,226 deaths between 65 and 79 years of age, and 36,848 among those over 79 years of age.

By sex, premature mortality attributable to heat was 63% higher in women than in men, with a total of 35,406 premature deaths, compared to the estimated 21,667 in men.

The deadliest summer

Before 2022, the deadliest summer in Europe was 2003, when 70,000 more deaths that expected occurred because of the temperatures.

"The summer of 2003 was an exceptionally rare phenomenon, even when taking into account the anthropogenic warming observed up to then, and it revealed the lack of prevention plans and the fragility of health systems to deal with emergencies related to the climate, something that was tried to be corrected to a certain extent in later years," explained ISGlobal researcher Joan Ballester Claramunt, primary author of the study.

However, the fact that last year more than 61,600 people died from heat in Europe despite the fact that, unlike in 2003, many countries already had active prevention plans, suggests that the adaptation strategies that we have are still insufficient, he pointed out.

The study predicts that, if no action is taken, Europe will face an average of more than 68,000 premature deaths each summer by 2030 and more than 94,000 by 2040.

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Image: Freepik

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