Europe, as the fastest warming continent, faces rising temperatures and heat-related mortalities due to climate change. The year 2023 saw a record number of days with extreme heat. Sweco’s new analysis of 24 European cities highlights the urgent need for heat wave mitigation and resilience — through digital innovation, nature-based solutions and green-blue infrastructure as well as through designing high-performing buildings.
Europe is experiencing temperatures rising at twice the global average rate, and heat-related mortality has increased around 30% in the past 20 years. Heatwaves pose significant risks to public health and have a negative effect on infrastructure and economic productivity in urban areas.
“Europe is rapidly becoming both hotter and more urbanised at the same time, and its cities need to transform to combat this — it is not a problem that will go away. Sweco’s new report studying 24 European cities shows that heat-related concerns are often overlooked in climate plans and that cities in Northen Europe specifically need to prepare better, as they are still designed to protect populations from the cold, not heat. Authorities and policy makers need to look at regulations and act to address heatwaves, this must be included as a key component in the green transition of our urban areas,” said Dr Katherine Maxwell, Technical Director, Net Zero Cities, Asset Management at Sweco, and one of the main authors behind the report.
Today, around 70% of Europeans live in cities and, due to the ongoing urbanisation, this figure is expected to increase to 84% in 2050. Urban areas are now experiencing increasingly higher temperatures compared with rural areas due to climate change and the ‘urban heat island effect’ (UHI). Sweco’s report shows that some European cities are taking steps in the right direction to combat the heat, but major gaps still have to be addressed.