‘We were warned,’ says WHO Chief as more than 1,300+ die across Europe from Climate-Driven Heatwaves.

Conor here: Sadly, the number is expected to increase significantly. In the summer of 2022, more than 61,000 Europeans died from the heat, and this year is expected to be worse.

In Quillette’s piece, Maarten Boudry makes the case that Europe needs to catch up with the air conditioning system. Yet this debate highlights Europe’s liabilities: high energy and utility costs and a grid that is not equipped for mass adoption of AC on a hot continent.

Any cultural resistance to AC in Europe seems to melt away in the heat, but regardless of how increased use can exacerbate the heat island effect and contribute to further global warming, this is where European energy decisions come into the picture. Consider Boudry’s argument:

The hard work is to change the mindset: to stop treating power as a propitiation. Energy is the primary resource, the thing that buys almost all other good things. All of human history is a story of using more energy to improve our lives and hold the deadly forces of nature at bay. To despise power is to bite the hand that feeds you.

The EU has used a geopolitical tour de force by biting the hand that feeds it while cutting itself off from Russian gas. That won’t help any mass adoption of AC, which is challenging because of the strain it places on the grid and utilities. As Euronews noted last year in what has become an annual phenomenon:

Heat waves not only increase demand for electricity; they can also reduce energy production from other forms of energy. Several European countries have had to repeatedly reduce electricity production or shut down nuclear power plants due to extreme heat this summer.

If nuclear is down, hydro power is down, there isn’t much wind blowing during the heater, what other options do you have? Here is the EU’s energy mix for 2024:

In 2024, the EU’s energy mix, meaning the range of available energy sources, mainly consisted of 5 different sources:

• crude oil and petroleum products (38%)
• natural gas (21%)
• renewable energy (20%)
• nuclear power (12%)
• solid fat (10%)

But the cost of the EU is high. According to the IEA, “The average electricity price of the EU remained the highest among the markets analyzed in 2025 – almost twice that of the United States and India, and above the levels of Australia (+65%) and Japan (+25%).

A big reason for that is because of how 57% were imported—and now they’re paying a premium for those top two things because of hatred for Russia. The US, on the other hand, imported only 17 percent of the 2024 energy supply.

So while Europeans may worry about Americans using AC to sweater temperatures, it would be difficult for most Europeans to be able to do the same—even if they wanted to.

By Jon Queally, managing editor of Common Dreams. Originally published in Common Dreams.

The head of the World Health Organization said on Sunday that the deadly heat wave now raging across Europe – which French authorities say has killed more than 1,000 people in the past week alone – is a predictable and dire outcome that climate scientists and human rights advocates have been warning about for decades.

In a social letter of Sunday, the secretary-general of the WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “Because of climate change and global warming, this ‘intergenerational’ heat wave scenario is happening almost every year. We were warned.”

Citing more than 1,300 deaths across Europe last week—as temperatures broke records around the world—Tedros added that “heat stress is often called the ‘silent killer’—and European homes, workplaces and schools are not built for these temperatures.”

“Europe is the hottest continent on Earth, twice as hot as the global average,” he said. “Right now 150 million people are living under extreme heat, hundreds are dead, schools are closed, grids are freezing.”

According to the Associated Press:

Germany set a new record for the third day in a row at 41.7 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit) in Neißemünde, near the border with Poland. The Czech Republic also had its hottest day at 41.1 C (106.4 F).

A new study from the World Weather Attribution, a collaboration of European scientists, reported on Friday that the record-breaking heat and humidity in Europe this past week would not have happened without climate change.

A quick study found that heat would not have happened five decades ago, and it is 200 times more likely today than it would have been 20 years ago.

On Sunday, French authorities said more than 1,000 people had died from heatstroke in the past 24 hours, at least a hundred or more in the past 24 hours.

Just when you think you’re going to get a break from this extreme heat, a 3rd major heatwave is on the way and forecasts suggest it could get even worse. #Spain could see temperatures of 46°C, #France 45°C and #UK close to 40°C again. This is a new and dangerously unfriendly climate. pic.twitter.com/8MvXUjnbO7

— Peter Dynes (@PGDynes) June 28, 2026

The threat of extreme heat related to the climate crisis is not only in Europe.

In 2024, a peer-reviewed study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that heat-related deaths in the United States increased by 117% between 1999 and 2023.

Last year, a joint analysis by The Guardian and Pro Publica estimated that US President Donald Trump’s pro-industrial policies could lead to the otherwise preventable deaths of 1.3 million people worldwide over the next 80 years, most of them among poor people in nations that do little to cause the planet’s crisis driven by the use of fossil fuels.

In a comment last week, as a deadly heatwave made headlines around the world, Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) was among those who directly targeted Trump for his aggressive policies related to energy and climate.

“There is a record heat wave in Europe and hundreds are dying,” Sanders said. “There’s a drought across America and farmers are going out of business. Yet Trump thinks climate change is a ‘hoax’ and is cutting funding for sustainable energy. He’s crazy. He’s threatening the future of our planet.”

On Friday, the climate group 350.org said that companies that pollute the environment, namely the coal, oil and gas industries, should be made to pay for the death and damage they have caused and continue to cause.

“It’s time to burn the fuel storms that caused this wave, but you’re not doing anything to deal with the costs,” said Lisa Rose, a campaigner in the group. “Both science and law are clear: polluters must be held accountable for climate damage. Now it’s up to our leaders to pay.”

“Forcing oil companies to reduce emissions and pay their fair share is the only lasting answer,” he added. “Partial measures will not cure this problem, only a rapid transition to renewables.”