An Imperial College London-led study estimates that at least 1,147 people in the UK died from heat linked to climate change this summer. The UK experienced its hottest summer on record, with researchers saying human-caused warming made extreme heat more frequent and intense. The team used modelling and historical mortality data to produce early estimates, finding climate change raised temperatures by about 2.2C on average and up to 3.6C between June and August. Across 854 European cities, heat accounted for about 68% of 24,400 heat-related deaths in the three months, equating to around 16,500 extra deaths compared with a summer not heated by human activity.

In the UK, London recorded 315 excess heat deaths. Birmingham had 52; Glasgow 24; Sheffield 22; Edinburgh 22; Belfast, Leeds, Wolverhampton and Dundee each saw 14. Doncaster had at least 12 deaths, Leicester at least 11, Cardiff 9, Nottingham and Swansea 8 each, and Manchester, Newcastle and Bristol 7 each.

The study notes the figures are a snapshot covering around 30% of Europe’s population and that many heat-related deaths go unreported. Death certificates rarely list heat as the cause. The team says small rises in summer heat can determine life or death for thousands and stresses the need to shift away from fossil fuels. They call for policies to boost resilience to extreme heat, such as more green and blue spaces in cities. The analysis involved 11 researchers from Imperial College London, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the University of Bern, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute and the University of Copenhagen. Malcolm Mistry of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine noted that heat-health warning systems exist across Europe, but the health burden from heat has remained high in recent summers. Climate Central published a separate global analysis on the same day, finding that about 1.8 billion people worldwide experience heat strongly influenced by climate change, and nearly a billion endured a full month of dangerous heat.