Terrifying study reveals exactly how many people DIED in Europe thanks to climate change this summer – including more than 1,000 in the UK

This summer was the UK’s hottest on record, with four separate heatwaves and endless hours of sunshine.

But while many took the opportunity to go to the beach or sunbathe in their back gardens, increases in temperature can also be deadly.

Experts have now calculated just how many people died in Europe thanks to climate change this summer.

According to their calculations, global warming was responsible for more than 1,000 heat–related deaths in the UK alone.

Dr Clair Barnes, researcher at the Centre for Environmental Policy Imperial College London, said: ‘It may not sound like much, but our study shows that shifts in summer heat of just a few degrees can be the difference between life and death for thousands of people.

‘It is another reminder that climate change isn’t an issue we can just deal with at some point in the future. The longer it takes governments to shift away from fossil fuels and cut emissions, the deadlier summer heat will become – even with efforts to become more resilient to extreme temperatures.’

The analysis showed that across 854 European cities, climate change was responsible for 68 per cent of the 24,400 estimated heat deaths this summer.

That means global warming caused an extra 16,500 deaths compared to a summer that hadn’t been heated by human activities, they warned.

The analysis showed that across 854 European cities, climate change was responsible for 68 per cent of the 24,400 estimated heat deaths this summer

Office workers were forced to strip off during one of London’s many heatwaves. This summer marked the UK’s hottest on record

Experts said climate change was responsible for more than two–thirds of heat deaths in the UK this summer

This summer, Europe experienced several months of intense temperatures.

Heat deaths have been reported across the continent, including a 51–year–old street cleaner in Barcelona and a 47–year–old construction worker in San Lazzaro di Savena in Italy.

The countries hit the hardest by a single heatwave were Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Cyprus from July 21–27 when an estimated 950 heat deaths occurred in temperatures up to 6°C above average.

The capital cities with the highest death rates per capita were Rome, Athens, and Bucharest, reflecting their exposure to some of the most extreme heat in Europe.

Overall, climate change was behind 4,597 of the estimated heat deaths in Italy, 2,841 in Spain, 1,477 in Germany, 1,444 in France, 1,147 in the UK, 1,064 in Romania, 808 in Greece, 552 in Bulgaria and 268 in Croatia, the study found.

People aged over 65 made up about 85 per cent of the total deaths, with 41 per cent aged over 85.

This reflects how heat is a rising threat for Europe’s rapidly ageing population, the team said.

Europe is the fastest–warming continent and will continue to experience increasingly hotter summers until fossil fuels are replaced with renewable energy, they added.

In London, 70 per cent of heat deaths were attributed to climate change, the study’s authors said

A man shelters from the sun beneath an umbrella as he sits next to the Garonne river, in Toulouse on June 20, 2025. The summer of 2025 was the third hottest on record in France since weather forecast agency Meteo–France began measuring temperatures in 1900

Heatwaves hit France especially hard this summer. In south–west France, records were broken in Angoulême, Bergerac, Bordeaux, Saint–Émilion and Saint–Girons.

Météo France said the ‘often remarkable, even unprecedented, maximum temperatures’ in the region were 12°C above the norm for the last few decades.

Dr Garyfallos Konstantinoudis, lecturer at the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London said: ‘Heatwaves are silent killers.

‘The vast majority of heat deaths happen in homes and hospitals, where people with existing health conditions are pushed to their limit, but heat is rarely mentioned on death certificates.

‘Despite being the deadliest type of extreme weather, heat has long been underestimated as a public health risk. For example, even this summer in Europe, people are still working outdoors in temperatures above 40°C.

‘No one would expect someone to risk their life working in torrential rain or hurricane winds, but dangerous heat is still treated too casually.’

Dr Pierrre Masselot, Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, warned this summer was a ‘stark reminder’ of the necessity to take climate change seriously.

And Friederike Otto, Professor in Climate Science at the Centre for Environmental Policy Imperial College London, said: ‘If we had not continued to burn fossil fuels over the last decades, most of the estimated 16,600 people in Europe wouldn’t have died this summer.’

Dr Malcolm Mistry, Assistant Professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: ‘Heat-health warning systems and action plans are actually well-developed across most regions in Europe.

‘However, even with warnings issued by meteorological and public health authorities across Europe, the health burden associated with heat has remained consistently high in recent summers.

‘Policies to adapt to heat are important, such as introducing flexible work schedules, adjusting the school calendar, increasing urban greenspace and air conditioning, as well as improving public health infrastructure.

‘But the harsh reality is that unless we urgently reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the above interventions are going to have a limited role in mitigating the risks of human-induced global warming, not only on health, but also on other sectors such as agriculture.’