1,500 deaths in recent European heat wave were due to climate change, study estimates – CBC

Heat is generally not reported as an underlying cause of death

Jul 09, 2025

Human-caused climate change is responsible for killing about 1,500 people in last week’s European heat wave, a first-of-its-kind rapid study estimates.

Those 1,500 people “have only died because of climate change, so they would not have died if it would not have been for our burning of oil, coal and gas in the last century,” said study co-author Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College in London.

Scientists at Imperial and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine used peer-reviewed techniques to calculate that about 2,300 people in 12 cities likely died from the heat in last week’s bout of high temperatures, with nearly two-thirds of them dying because of the extra degrees that climate change added to the natural summer warmth.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/heat-death-europe-estimates-1.7580633