Europe’s heat is no longer a summer story, it’s a year-round health emergency

A continent warming twice as fast as the global average

Europe holds an unwanted distinction: it is warming at roughly twice the global average rate, making it the fastest-heating continent on Earth.

This summer has already provided a grim illustration. Following an unusually early and intense heatwave in May, a second "heat dome" settled over Western Europe in June, pushing France to its hottest day on record and triggering red-level health alerts in France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and Luxembourg.

The human cost is already substantial and rising. The World Health Organization estimates that heat-related illness killed close to half a million people worldwide each year between 2000 and 2019, and has linked roughly 200,000 deaths across the EU and neighbouring countries to heat over just the past four years. The European Environment Agency calculates that as many as 95% of deaths linked to weather and climate extremes recorded in Europe since 1980 trace back to heatwaves, far outweighing floods, storms or wildfires.

Three cities, three different entry points into the same problem

There is no single fix for extreme heat, it must be tackled on several fronts at once: reaching isolated and vulnerable residents directly, reshaping public space so it stays cooler, and building the institutional habit of planning ahead rather than reacting in a crisis. Three cities in the EU Mission on Adaptation network show what that looks like in practice.

• Reaching people directly: Kassel, Germany. Rather than waiting for residents to ask for help, the Heat Telephone Parasol scheme has volunteers proactively call elderly residents during heatwaves, checking on their wellbeing, sharing practical advice and offering a moment of social contact, addressing both the medical risk and the isolation that often compounds it.
• Planning ahead: Maribor, Slovenia. Maribor's first Heat Action Plan sets out where the city's heat risk is concentrated and pairs that mapping with action: over 3,000 trees planted, shaded playgrounds, and bus stops redesigned to be bearable rather than baking in midsummer, all shaped through ongoing dialogue with residents.
• Redesigning public space: Antwerp, Belgium. Antwerp is building out a city-wide network of Cool Spots with shaded, green, water-featured public areas positioned so that no resident has to walk far to reach relief from the heat, based on scientific mapping of where the city actually gets hottest.

None of these are quick fixes or one-off interventions. Taken together, they illustrate a wider point: effective heat adaptation blends health outreach, urban design, nature-based cooling and local governance, and it has to be built before the next heatwave arrives, not during it.

Turning evidence into action: new Quick Guides for local authorities

Eight booklets cover the major climate hazards facing European regions: flash floods, river floods, coastal floods, storms, droughts, ice and snow, wildfires, and heatwaves. Each is built to be used on the spot by technical staff and decision-makers: assess local risk quickly, see what other regions have already tried, identify adaptation measures that are proven to work, and find relevant funding routes.

The Heatwaves Quick Guide distils this directly for the risk now playing out across the continent, covering early warning systems, urban greening, cooling infrastructure and how to prioritise support for the residents most exposed to dangerous heat.

In addition, a short video from the Mission on Adaptation, Tackling Extreme Heat in Europe, looks at how regions and Mission projects across the continent are turning this evidence into action and why adaptation now needs to be treated as core public health infrastructure, not an optional extra.