Soaring costs and health burden of climate inaction

The newly released European State of the Climate 2024 annual report (ESOTC), co-published by the European Union’s Copernicus Earth observation program and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), confirms what public health experts have long warned about: the health costs of climate change in Europe are rising fast, and so is the human toll. 

This latest report is yet another stark reminder that the climate crisis is a health crisis. With the EU preparing the European Climate Law Revision and Climate Adaptation Plan, health should be placed at the centre of EU climate action – because any delay will add to the growing health bill from climate change.

Claudio Lanza, Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer on Health and Climate, HEAL

Europe is warming twice as fast as the global average, with an increase of 2.5% since pre-industrial levels. Last year was Europe’s warmest on record, with extreme heatwaves, floods, and wildfires multiplying across the continent.  

Heat stress days and tropical nights reached their second highest number ever recorded. Southeastern Europe endured its longest and most intense heatwave yet, with 43 out of 97 summer days falling under heatwave conditions. The report highlights that “most of Europe saw above‑average temperatures for the year as a whole, but southeastern Europe experienced extreme heat during the summer”, thus increasing heat strain on the human body, especially for the elderly, children, and those with pre-existing health conditions. Citing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates, the report highlights that if global warming reaches 1.5°C, Europe could see up to 30,000 deaths annually due to extreme heat, with the highest and fastest death tolls expected in southeastern countries. 

Meanwhile, floods – the deadliest climate-related hazard in 2024 – claimed at least 335 lives and affected over 400,000 people. Severe storms and flooding took 335 lives in 2024 and affected 413,000 others, according to the report.  

In addition, increasing wildfires also pose a significant health risk: in 2024, over 42,000 people across the continent were directly affected by wildfires.  

The cost of inaction is already too high – and is only expected to climb. In total, climate change-related losses reached €18.2 billion last year, mostly due to storms and flooding. The economic cost of climate-related extreme weather between 1980 and 2023 is already a staggering €738 billion.  

EU policymakers need to act now to protect health   

As EU policymakers are deliberating the bloc’s 2040 climate ambition, the Copernicus/WMO report confirms the urgency to act.  

Attempts to introduce greater flexibility in achieving CO2 emission reductions in Europe or to delay much needed cuts to well into the next decade will have real consequences for people’s health. Any delay in EU climate action adds to the growing health bill from climate change.  

In 2023, EU health and environment ministers committed to stepping up action on climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss in the World Health Organization Budapest Ministerial Declaration. Together with the EU Commission and the EU-Parliament, member states now need to walk the talk.   

As a first step, this means including health considerations (impacts and benefits) in all climate risk assessments.  

In addition to placing health at the centre of EU, national, and local climate action, HEAL’s prescription for healthy people on a healthy planet calls to:  

• Protect the health of the most vulnerable.  
• Invest in better health, not pollution.  
• Ramp up health measures for a non-toxic environment