In a disturbing finding, a study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) released on August 12 has determined that at least 47,000 people died in Europe as a result of high temperatures in 2023. The authors of the study caution that these numbers may underestimate the actual numbers of deaths which could have been more on the order of 58,000 deaths in the 35 countries studied.
This comes as the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) in Europe released data August 8 showing that July 2024 was both the second-warmest July and the second-warmest month globally in the ERA5 data record and while July 2024 was not quite as warm as July 2023 on average, the Earth experienced its two hottest days recorded during that period. ERA5 covers the global climate from January 1940 to the present.
The average European temperature for July 2024 was 1.49°C above the 1991-2020 average for July and were most above average over southern and eastern Europe.
According to ISGlobal, the countries with the highest heat related mortality rates were in southern Europe, namely Greece (393 deaths per million), Bulgaria (229 deaths per million), Italy (209 deaths per million), Spain (175 deaths per million), Cyprus (167 deaths per million) and Portugal (136 deaths per million).
“In 2023, almost half of the days exceeded the 1.5°C threshold set by the Paris Agreement and Europe is warming at a rate twice as fast as the global average. Climate projections indicate that the 1.5°C limit is likely to be exceeded before 2027, leaving us a very small window of opportunity to act”, says Joan Ballester Claramunt, Principal Investigator of the European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant EARLY-ADAPT.
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