Researchers estimate summer 2026 was the deadliest for heat in Europe’s cities since 2000. Barcelona’s 500 climate shelters and Italy’s afternoon work bans show how cities are adjusting.
Heat caused more than 50,000 deaths in 854 European urban areas between 1 June and 31 August, new estimates show. Researchers at Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine attribute about two-thirds of them to human-induced climate change.
This summer’s toll is the highest since the researchers’ records begin in 2000. It’s almost double the estimates for 2022, at about 29,000, and for 2003, at about 28,000. Italy recorded more than 13,000 deaths and France about 7,000, while UK urban areas accounted for about 4,500. Around 6,000 of those who died were under 65.
A modelled toll with a margin
The figures are modelled estimates, built on published links between temperature and death rates. Global warming now stands at about 1.4C above pre-industrial levels. The team compared this summer with a simulated climate free of that warming. A companion study covering 2000 to 2025 put urban heat deaths above 430,000. Over that period, the share attributed to climate change rose from about 40% to more than two-thirds. Beyond Europe, the Climate Impact Lab projects about 451,000 excess heat deaths in the first half of the current El Niño.
In Spain, the study puts this summer’s toll at 6,824, with 77% attributed to climate change. By comparison, Spain’s own MoMo monitoring system logged 5,807 heat-attributed deaths, even over a longer window from 15 May to 30 September. David García García, a MoMo researcher at the Carlos III Health Institute, cautioned that the attribution method may produce high estimates. The study also covers only urban areas, home to about 40% of the 30 countries’ population.
Shelters within a 10-minute walk
Barcelona opened 500 climate shelters this summer, about 100 more than in 2025. More than three-quarters are indoors, including libraries and community centres, and about 60 new micro-shelters sit in pharmacies and shops. As a result, the city says 99% of residents live within a 10-minute walk of one. When the scheme started in 2020, it had 70 spaces.
Paris, meanwhile, kept most of its parks open around the clock during its red heat alert from 11 to 13 July. It also listed libraries, pools and fountains as cooling spots. In Vienna, the city has paid out more than €25 million in subsidies for external blinds and shutters. It also runs mist stations, drinking fountains and indoor cool rooms, alongside a heat action plan adopted in 2025.
Outdoor work stops at 12.30
Ten Italian regions issued ordinances this summer that halt outdoor work in farming and construction, mostly from 12.30 to 16.00. The bans apply on high-risk days flagged by Worklimate, a heat-stress forecast from the research council CNR and the workplace insurer Inail. Sicily, Lazio and Piedmont also extended the measures to logistics workers and delivery riders. In Lombardy, a breach can bring up to three months’ arrest or a fine of up to €206.
What the plans have achieved
A study of 102 locations in 14 European countries linked heat prevention plans to a 25.2% fall in heat-attributable deaths. Santé publique France published it in December 2025, and it put the deaths avoided at about 14,551. The effect held across European regions and types of plan.
National mortality data for 2026, such as Spain’s MoMo counts, will test that record next. They will show whether the cities that expanded shelters and work bans lost fewer people per hot day than in 2022.
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