Extreme heat is estimated to have caused more than 50,000 excess heat deaths in European towns and cities during summer 2026, according to two new peer-reviewed studies due to be published in Nature Health — and climate change is largely to blame.
Popular tourist cities faced criticism this summer for their lack of shaded spaces and air conditioning (AC), with the latter emerging as a sort of culture war between climate action and comfort. But new analysis by Imperial College London and by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine shows heat is an increasingly important safety issue.
Analysis of 854 urban areas across 30 countries — European Union member states plus the UK, Norway and Switzerland, covering 40% of their populations — found that climate change stemming primarily from the burning of fossil fuels is responsible for about two-thirds of this summer’s estimated heat deaths.
Researchers modeled deaths