‘A sad inevitability’: after decades of climate warnings, why is Europe so unprepared for rising heat?

Automatically composed with AI from the cited sources

WHO estimates extreme heat has caused 200,000 deaths across Europe in the past four years, as a June 2026 heatwave broke national records in France, the UK and Switzerland. A rapid attribution study by World Weather Attribution found the heatwave would have been virtually impossible at this time of year 50 years ago, with overnight temperatures about 100 times more likely than during the fatal 2003 event. A November study projected that if the 2003 heatwave struck today with the same strength, adaptation measures would cut the death toll by 75%, though the current extremes already exceed that benchmark.