A new report by European climate experts says that Europe is warming about twice as fast as the rest of the planet, and that heat is killing a lot of people in the summer.
According to estimates made by the United Nations and Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service, the number of deaths caused by heat on the continent has increased by at least 30% over the past two decades.
According to José lvaro Silva of the United Nations' World Meteorological Organization, "the impact on human health is more pronounced in cities, where the majority of people are living." Not only are people more concentrated in urban areas, but buildings and roads also stay hotter for longer in cities, which cause them to warm up faster than rural areas.
A clear illustration of how dangerous heat can be for Europeans was the summer of 2023. In nearly half of Southern Europe, intense heat and humidity during a heat wave in July made it feel like it was 110 degrees or hotter.
That is the sort of climate that can kill individuals in the event that they don't approach cooling. Researchers assert that the final death toll from the heat wave is almost certainly in the tens of thousands. According to one study, the heat wave in July 2023 was responsible for the premature deaths of more than 60,000 people.
The head of the World Meteorological Organization, Chris Hewitt, asserts, "Extreme heat causes the greatest mortality of all extreme weather."
Three factors are driving Europe's rapid warming. The Arctic, the world's fastest-warming region, is close to the continent. Even though London is further north, its winters are much more temperate than Chicago's because it is naturally located near warm ocean and atmospheric currents.
Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, explains that this also indicates that Europe is experiencing dangerously high temperatures at a faster rate than other regions at similar latitudes.
Burgess asserts, "We are continuing to see new records broken constantly."
Many European cities are scrambling to ensure that residents have access to air conditioning and dependable electricity to power it during the hottest days due to the danger posed by heat. Blackouts, when the power grid fails during extremely hot weather, have been the cause of some of the world's most deadly heat waves. The new report contains encouraging news on this front: Europe is increasingly relying on renewable energy sources like wind and solar to generate electricity. The continent produced more electricity in 2023 from renewable sources than from burning fossil fuels for the second year in a row. Europe's move away from electricity generated by oil, gas, and coal is assisting in the reduction of its greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to global warming and increase the risk of future catastrophe.
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