Extreme heat could kill more than 47,000 people in Europe in 2023, with the region’s southern countries set to be worst hit, according to a report published on Monday by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal).
Last year was the hottest year on record. As temperatures continue to rise due to climate change, Europeans live on the world’s fastest-warming continent, with extreme heat increasing health risks.
If measures such as early warning systems and improvements in healthcare had not been taken over the past 20 years to help people adapt to rising temperatures, the death toll in 2023 – far below the 60,000 estimated last year – would have been 80% higher, the Spanish research centre reports.
The researchers used death and temperature records from 35 European countries. They estimate that 47,690 people died from causes related to high temperatures.
Adjusting for population figures, Greece, Bulgaria, Italy and Spain were found to have the highest heat-related mortality rates.