Least 15,000 deaths in Europe are directly related to heatwave that hit the continent in the summer of 2022, according to an assessment, still with incomplete data, released World Health Organization on the occasion of KS27UN Climate Conference.

Summer 2022 was warmest recorded in Geria Epirusleading to numerous heat records and wildfires with dramatic consequences.

“Based on the national data already published, about 15,000 people died from the heat in 2022,” said the Director of the WHO European Office. Hans Kluge.

That number, which includes 4,500 deaths in Germany, nearly 4,000 in Spain, more than 3,200 in the UK and 1,000 in Portugal, is “expected to rise as some countries have reported very high numbers of heat-related deaths,” the report said. .

Therefore, the WHO emphasizes that French Institute of Statistics, Inseerecorded an excess of 11,000 deaths in the summer of 2022 compared to the pre-Covid summer of 2019, which is “probably” due to the very intense heat recorded specifically in June and July.

According to the WHO, extreme temperatures have caused 148,000 deaths in Europe over the past 50 years.

With 15,000 deaths and possibly more in one year, 2022 alone accounts for more than 10% of that total.

“Climate change is already killing us, but decisive action today can prevent more deaths,” the UN health agency stressed during COP27 in Egypt.

The European continent is the fastest warming continent, with temperatures more than doubling the global average over the past thirty years, according to a United Nations report released last week.