Leading climate-related causes of death, illness and suffering result from exposure to increasingly frequent and more intense extreme weather events, including heatwaves, wildfires, floods and storm surges, as well as slow-onset events such as droughts.

Heatwaves across Europe are affecting the health and livelihoods of millions of people. In 2022 in the WHO European Region, extreme heat claimed more than 60 000 lives, and by 2050 this could rise to 120 000 heat-related deaths every year. Climate change is increasing the risk of heatwaves, and extreme heat in the summer months is becoming the norm, not the exception.

Floods are the most common form of natural disaster in the European Region and can affect both physical and mental well-being. Climate change is projected to result in more frequent and more intense heavy precipitation events, making them 9 times more likely to occur. Without appropriate adaptation, river flooding is projected to affect 250 000–400 000 additional people per year in the European Region by the 2080s.

Wildfires are increasing in frequency, severity and duration, heightening the need to understand the health effects of wildfire exposure. The risk of wildfires grows in extremely dry conditions, such as drought, heatwaves and during high winds. Wildfire smoke is a mixture of air pollutants of which particulate matter (PM) is the principal public health threat.

The adverse health effects of extreme weather are largely preventable through good public health practices.

Climate action is needed to strengthen preparedness and resilience

Extreme weather events are a growing health risk due to burgeoning urbanization, an increase in high-temperature extremes, changing precipitation patterns, and demographic changes in countries with ageing populations, like most WHO European Member States.

In the coming decades, growing exposure and vulnerability to heatwaves and other extreme weather events will lead to more suffering, ill health and deaths unless countries take truly drastic adaptation and mitigation measures to tackle climate change.

• Adaptation means making our health systems and our societies fit to face the future with a changing climate. WHO/Europe issues technical guidance to support national and local authorities in essential preparation for extreme weather events.
  
  
• Mitigation means going beyond preparing for the impacts of climate change to being part of the solution. Our health systems and societies need to be climate-resilient, sustainable and low-carbon. We can do our part by ensuring that climate change is fully integrated, internalized and institutionalized into our health systems, accelerating the delivery of net-zero, sustainable health care to improve individual, societal and planetary health.
  

WHO European Member States have already demonstrated that they can work together effectively on urgent threats to global health. The outcome of the 7th Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health and its Budapest Declaration define the future environment and health priorities and commitments for the Region to 2030 and beyond, with a focus on addressing the health dimensions of the triple environmental crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution.