Climate change linked to 1,587 heat deaths in Barcelona this summer

A study estimates that climate change caused 1,587 heat-related deaths in Barcelona and 32,600 across European cities, during the 2026 summer. 

Scientists at Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine conducted the research. The study analyzes the impact of high temperatures in 854 urban areas across 30 European countries, home to about 173 million people. 

The researchers estimate that 50,391 heat-related deaths occurred in June, July and August, and they attribute 32,619 of them to global warming caused by human activity, mainly the burning of fossil fuels.

To measure the impact of climate change, the scientists compared the temperatures recorded during the summer with those that would have occurred in a hypothetical scenario without human-caused global warming. 

They then applied statistical models based on the relationship between temperatures and mortality observed in earlier studies.

Barcelona ranks second among European cities for deaths attributable to global warming, behind only Milan, where an estimated 1,627 such deaths occurred. 

The results are statistical estimates, not a count of individual deaths certified as caused by heat. The authors say the method allows them to approximate the health impact of extreme temperatures before definitive mortality data is available, though they acknowledge the calculations carry a margin of uncertainty.

More than 5,200 deaths in Spain attributable to climate change

Across the 90 Spanish cities in the study, scientists estimate that there were 6,824 heat-related deaths during the summer, 5,227 of them attributed to climate change, or about 77%.

The study includes 11 Catalan cities: Barcelona, Tarragona, Lleida, Girona, Igualada, Granollers, Vilanova i la Geltrú, Mataró, Mollet del Vallès, Reus and Manresa.

In Tarragona, researchers estimate 47 heat-related deaths, 34 of them attributed to global warming. In Lleida, they estimate 52 deaths, 35 of them linked to climate change. In Girona, they estimate 36 heat-related deaths, 26 of them attributed to the rise in temperatures caused by human activity.

The researchers point out that climate change plays an increasingly significant role in mortality associated with high temperatures. According to their calculations, at the beginning of this century, approximately 40% of heat-related deaths were attributed to human-caused warming, whereas this summer that proportion reached 65%.

The study also identifies a particularly critical period between June 17 and July 1, during which nearly a third of the estimated deaths occurred. During those days, average daily temperatures across the entire region exceeded the typical values ​​for the 1991–2020 reference period by more than five degrees.

Although the elderly remain the most vulnerable to extreme temperatures, the researchers estimate that approximately 6,000 people under the age of 65 also died from heat-related causes in the cities analyzed.