Climate change tripled heat-related deaths in early summer European heatwave
Author(s)
Type
Report
Abstract
Human-caused climate change intensified the recent European heatwave and increased the number of heat deaths by about 1,500 in 12 European cities.
Focusing on ten days of heat from June 23 to July 2, the researchers estimated the death toll using peer-reviewed methods and found climate change nearly tripled the number of heat-related deaths, with fossil fuel use having increased heatwave temperatures up to 4°C across the cities.
They warn that heatwave temperatures will keep rising and future death tolls are likely to be higher, until the world largely stops burning oil, gas and coal and reaches net zero emissions.
It is the first rapid study to estimate the number of deaths linked to climate change for a heatwave and was led by scientists at Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Focusing on ten days of heat from June 23 to July 2, the researchers estimated the death toll using peer-reviewed methods and found climate change nearly tripled the number of heat-related deaths, with fossil fuel use having increased heatwave temperatures up to 4°C across the cities.
They warn that heatwave temperatures will keep rising and future death tolls are likely to be higher, until the world largely stops burning oil, gas and coal and reaches net zero emissions.
It is the first rapid study to estimate the number of deaths linked to climate change for a heatwave and was led by scientists at Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Date Issued
2025-07-14
Citation
2025
Publisher
Grantham Institute, Imperial College London
Copyright Statement
© 2025 The Author(s). This work is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence. This licence permits all or part of the work to be copied and shared with others, provided that the original authors and source are credited. The full licence is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Subjects
Climate change
Heatwave
Public health
Publication Status
Published