As Europe grapples with an ongoing climate crisis, the heat-related death toll has become an alarming reality. In just a matter of years, fatalities linked to extreme temperatures have risen dramatically, indicating that urgent action is needed. This article explores the current state of political responses to rising heat-related deaths and the broader implications for society.
Conor here: Apparently, the absence of political tension is striking. A glance at the chart illustrating heat-related deaths reveals a troubling trend, with Europe witnessing 63,000 deaths in 2022, followed by the same number in 2024, and expectations for an even greater figure this year. A Saturday AFP count has already identified 33,000 excess deaths across just eight countries as a direct consequence of heat, and summer isn’t even over yet.
This raises the question: Would there be more progress in tackling this issue if heatwaves predominantly affected affluent districts rather than areas filled with large apartment complexes and high poverty rates? Bob Berwyn, an Austria-based reporter, has spent over a decade covering climate science and international climate policy. This piece was originally published at Inside Climate News.
Since June, a series of relentless heatwaves have enveloped much of Europe, igniting political debates surrounding the government’s inadequate responses to the devastating consequences of these climate extremes. Despite the increasing severity of temperatures, many political leaders are still endorsing policies that exacerbate the crisis. This combination of extreme heat and drought has resulted in drained rivers, dried-up crops, and landscapes turned into kindling, prompting Green parties and various citizen organizations to demand heat summits and more urgent government intervention.
In some instances, far-right nationalists are capitalizing on the crises, placing blame on opposing governments for their failure to shield citizens from the effects of climate change while simultaneously denying human contributions to it.
The initial wave of scorching temperatures in June was responsible for approximately 10,000 heat-related deaths across Europe, including an estimated 395 fatalities in Austria, where the Green Party urged the government to convene a national heat summit.
In Linz, City Councilwoman Eva Schobesberger of the Green Party has formally called for a special legislative session to discuss immediate measures to safeguard at-risk populations. “We know what needs to be done,” she asserted, noting that Europe has developed reliable forecasting for extreme heat and that public health experts possess knowledge on how to mitigate death tolls.
However, extreme temperatures have been claiming tens of thousands of lives in Europe for years, dating back to an estimated 70,000 deaths during a heatwave in 2003. Although political leaders claim to have learned from past events, a 2025 study in Nature Medicine revealed that heat-related mortality remains alarmingly high, with estimates of 68,000 deaths in 2022, 51,000 in 2023, and 63,000 projected for this year.
The current summer of heat and wildfires is being characterized by European Green party leaders as another “dark summer,” attributing these tragedies to political decisions. “We simply cannot and must never accept that this will become a new normal,” stated Vula Tsetsi, co-chair of the European Green Party. “The gap between the scale of Europe’s heatwaves—affecting every EU country—and the lack of decisive action is widening,” she urged, calling for the European Council to organize a heat summit.
Tsetsi highlighted that the EU Commission had intended to reveal a heat and cooling strategy as early as April but has faced political gridlock, delaying these critical initiatives.
In Linz, Schobesberger emphasized the urgent need for swift action, as global warming is outpacing the systems designed to respond to climate extremes. She noted that existing heat mitigation plans are based on outdated assumptions, and communities need to revisit these strategies frequently to reflect the latest climate forecasts.
While the specific number of heat-related deaths in Linz this summer remains unknown, the city has already taken significant strides in building heat resilience. The appointment of an urban climatologist in 2020 paved the way for a comprehensive urban heat map, which highlights areas lacking sufficient cooling infrastructure and public cooling spaces.
This map aids the city in planning initiatives to reduce urban temperatures, including planting more trees and developing water-absorbent parks. Additionally, Linz is currently expanding district cooling systems for hospitals and other public buildings. Schobesberger stated that the primary threat to ongoing improvement in heat adaptation isn’t technological barriers, but rather political will.
The Climate “Blame Game”
Much of Linz’s progress in climate action can be traced back to 2021 when the Green Party captured around 16 percent of the municipal vote. Schobesberger noted that the massive Fridays for Future demonstrations across Europe in 2019, ignited by Greta Thunberg’s activism, demonstrated considerable public backing for climate initiatives. This surge in citizen activism pressured other parties within the city government to support adaptation and resilience projects, as politicians sought to showcase their commitment to addressing climate issues.
“Politicians across parties wanted to demonstrate that they were taking the climate crisis seriously,” she remarked. The Green Party capitalized on this momentum to implement infrastructure projects that would be challenging to reverse. Unfortunately, attention has since shifted to more immediate concerns, such as wars and inflation, sidelining the climate crisis in political discourse.
In Linz, the mayor’s office downgraded a prominent climate coordination position and even removed “climate” from the name of the department responsible for increasing the city’s resilience to climate shocks. There are also murmurs from conservative and far-right populist parties claiming that newly greened areas have eliminated necessary road and parking spaces, suggesting they may roll back such projects.
SOURCE: Copernicus
Schobesberger pointed out that conservative parties have opposed several adaptation measures, especially tree-planting initiatives. In defiance of the Green Party’s concerns, the city administration also sanctioned an urban highway corridor that would increase local temperatures, resulting in the removal of hundreds of trees for more asphalt and vehicle access.
On a national scale, the far-right Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) continues to waged a disinformation campaign to confuse the public about the climate crisis causes and undermine the transition to renewable energy sources, particularly wind power.
Nevertheless, this year’s extreme heat has dispelled much of the climate disinformation fog and pierced the prevailing political apathy, according to Schobesberger. Under these circumstances, she argues that national and local heat summits could be productive if political leaders are convened alongside heat experts and scientists, with public scrutiny facilitating accountability.
Reinhard Steurer, a climate politics professor at Vienna’s BOKU University, observed that right-wing populists are attempting to leverage the extreme heat to bolster their popularity by criticizing the government.
He recounted how, during the first heat surge in June, producers from ServusTV, a media outlet affiliated with right-wing populist parties, contacted him to appear on a news program and blame the Austrian government for its inadequate climate adaptation efforts. Steurer was taken aback, given that, for years, ServusTV has minimized the impact of human-caused global warming, akin to the strategy employed by Fox in the United States. He believes this is part of a broader political tactic to acknowledge the suffering caused by extreme heat while shifting blame onto the current administration to gain political leverage.
This approach follows a blame-game playbook that populist parties worldwide have utilized to disseminate climate disinformation. Rather than accepting that human-driven climate change intensifies wildfire conditions, the narrative shifts blame toward migrant campfires.
ServusTV has not responded to inquiries regarding the requested interview with Steurer or its coverage of climate issues.
Limits to Adaptation
The complexities of climate politics do not have to follow this path. Aaron Thierry, a Cardiff University researcher focused on the role of scientific research in addressing the climate crisis, cited Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez as an example of a leader utilizing worsening disasters to advocate for action instead of merely assigning blame.
Sánchez has openly discussed the connection between extreme weather and climate change. As wildfires ravaged Spain this summer, he characterized the climate emergency as a threat to lives and ecosystems and insisted that governments must address both its origins and effects.
Although it’s premature to gauge the full impact of this summer’s extreme conditions, Thierry points out that overall public and media discourse on climate issues remains misguided. He referenced recent studies indicating a significant drop in climate coverage that alleviates pressure on governments to act.
“It appears that the climate issue is receiving less attention, which I find deeply concerning,” he remarked. Reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change affirm that tackling the root causes of the climate crisis is the sole way to avert mass casualties during the increasingly hot summers anticipated in future decades. The rising death tolls linked to extreme heat in Europe highlight that even affluent, developed nations are nearing their limits in climate adaptation.
“We must not overlook the urgency of phasing out fossil fuels, as they are the primary drivers of extreme heat,” he cautioned. “The science insists that this is an urgent priority. Transformational change is essential, yet our politics have not caught up.”
