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The toll of extreme heat is mounting. Europe’s tourism industry, on a continent largely resistant to air conditioning, must figure out how to adapt — as a matter of safety, not just comfort.
Extreme heat is estimated to have caused more than 50,000 excess heat deaths in European towns and cities during summer 2026, according to two new peer-reviewed studies due to be published in Nature Health — and climate change is largely to blame.
Popular tourist cities faced criticism this summer for their lack of shaded spaces and air conditioning (AC), with the latter emerging as a sort of culture war between climate action and comfort. But new analysis by Imperial College London and by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine shows heat is an increasingly important safety issue.
Analysis of 854 urban areas across 30 countries — European Union member states plus the UK, Norway and Switzerland, covering 40% of their populations — found that climate change stemming primarily from the burning of fossil fuels is responsible for about two-thirds of this summer’s estimated heat deaths.
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Tags: climate change , extreme heat , extreme weather , greenshift , tourism , travel