Just like Pakistan, Europe experienced a severe heatwave since late June that has caused over 2,300 deaths.
A new study by scientists from Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine made the estimate, analyzing 10 days of extreme heat from June 23 to July 2, focused on 12 major European cities, including London, Paris, Frankfurt, Budapest, Zagreb, Athens, Rome, Milan, Sassari, Barcelona, Madrid, and Lisbon.
Researchers found that approximately 1,500 of the deaths—about 65%—were directly linked to climate change, which intensified the heat wave’s severity.
According to the study, climate change has tripled the number of heat-related deaths in early summer across Europe. The affected cities experienced temperature increases of up to 4°C above normal levels during the period studied.
“The findings of this analysis and many others are extremely clear: heat extremes all across Europe are increasing rapidly due to human-induced climate change,” the researchers stated. They warned that as temperatures continue to rise, the number of heat-related deaths is likely to increase in the coming years.
The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service also reported on Wednesday that June 2025 was the third-warmest June on record globally.
Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, noted that the recent heat wave brought “very strong heat stress” to much of western Europe, exacerbated by record sea surface temperatures in the western Mediterranean.
Burgess cautioned that such heatwaves are expected to become “more frequent, more intense,” and affect a greater number of people across the continent as climate change continues to accelerate.