MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th July, 2023) The deaths of more than 61,000 people in Europe in the summer of 2022 were related to the heat, according to research published in the Nature Medicine journal on Monday.
According to the EU's Copernicus Earth Observation Programme, the summer of 2022 was the hottest season on record in Europe.
"Overall, we estimated 62,862 heat-related deaths in Europe in 2022; 61,672 of those deaths occurred between 30 May and 4 September," the article read.
The highest rates of summer heat-related deaths in Europe were recorded in Italy, Spain, Germany and France and were mainly among women and elderly people, the study found.
As the study notes, the European statistical agency Eurostat previously reported high mortality rates in Europe in the summer of 2022. However, the agency did not publish data on heat-related deaths.
According to the UN, since the 1980s, the temperature in Europe has risen twice as fast as the global average, while in 2022 at least 16,000 people died due to climate disasters and extreme heat.
The World Meteorological Organization published a forecast indicating that global temperatures could reach record high levels over the next five years. This would be facilitated by the anthropogenic factor, i.e. greenhouse gases, and a natural factor � the change of phases of ocean currents from La Nina to El Nino.
