Italy ranks first in heat-related deaths with 12,743 deaths, of which 8,388 were women, revealing a gender gap in Europe, with women 55% more likely to die from heat than men, according to a new study. Photo by Cesare Abate/EPA-EFE
Aug. 12 (UPI) — A heatwave killed more than 47,000 people in Europe last year and this year is widely expected to surpass 2023 as the hottest year in world history, researchers said in a new study.
An analysis by Spain's Barcelona Institute for Global Health found that while the number of heatstroke deaths in 2023, 47,690, remains a concern, it is still lower than the number of Europeans estimated to have died from heatstroke in 2022, 61,672.
This follows a recent World Health Organisation report which showed Europe is warming the fastest on the planet and accounts for the majority of heatstroke deaths globally.
Using epidemiological models across 823 regions and 35 countries from 2015 to 2019, adjusting for population size, the countries with the highest heatstroke death rates last year were all in Southern Europe.
The new data shows that Greece is the most vulnerable country with 393 deaths per million people, followed by Bulgaria with 229 and Italy with 209.
Italy ranks first in heat-related deaths with 12,743, of which 8,388 were women. The gender gap shows that in Europe, women are 55% more likely to die from heat-related causes than men.
Spain comes in second with 8,352 deaths and Germany third with 6,376 heatstroke deaths, while an estimated 1,851 people have died from similar causes in the UK.
In Europe, heat stress is the leading cause of climate-related deaths, with heat-related deaths increasing by 30% in the past 20 years and numbers rising steadily.
The 2003 heatwave killed an estimated 70,000 European citizens, prompting authorities to take measures to better protect the general public, but the researchers will now look at the effectiveness of these measures 20 years later as they consider the death toll from the 2022 heatwave.
But the researchers also note that without public measures to help people adapt to rising global temperatures over the past few decades, the number of heatstroke deaths in 2023 would have increased by 80%.
“Our results indicate that a process of societal adaptation to higher temperatures has taken place this century, leading to a dramatic reduction in heat-related vulnerability and mortality in recent summers, especially among older people,” said Elisa Gallo, lead author of the study and researcher at ISGlobal.
A study carried out this year revealed that the oceans absorbed record levels of heat in 2023. Meanwhile, at a global level, last year was the hottest year on record, resulting in an increase in forest fires, droughts and lasting health problems for people across the globe, with scientists predicting this year to follow the same ominous record as 2023.
In early June, the World Meteorological Organization warned that there was an 80% chance that we would temporarily exceed the 1.5°C limit set by the Paris Climate Agreement for at least one of the next five years until 2028.
According to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the chances of a temperature rise exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius “had been close to zero” but have “steadily increased” since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, with fossil fuels largely blamed as the root cause of rising greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.
“Avoiding reaching tipping points or critical thresholds in temperature projections will require a combination of mitigation efforts and (adaptation) measures by governments and the public,” Joan Ballester Claramunt, lead researcher at ISGlobal, said of the new study.
