Pollen seasons across Europe are now one to two weeks longer than they were in the 1990s and heat-related deaths have risen across almost the entire continent, according to a major report.
The longer pollen seasons are increasing exposure for tens of millions of people with hay fever and other allergies, a team of global researchers have found. At the same time, extreme heat warnings have also risen 318 per cent over the same period.
Out of all European regions monitored by researchers, around 99.6 per cent saw heat-related deaths rise between 2015 and 2024 compared with 1991-2000, with an average increase of 52 extra deaths per million people each year.
The hours each year when outdoor physical activity carries a risk of heat illness have grown by 88 per cent compared with the 1990s, and heat exposure among infants and people over 65 has risen by 254 per cent in terms of person-days.
Across the workforce, heat is estimated to be cutting labour supply by around 24 hours per worker per year compared with historical baselines, with outdoor workers in construction and agriculture among those most exposed.
The potential for dengue transmission in Europe has also increased by 297 per cent since 1981-2010, contributing to a rise in local outbreaks of the mosquito-borne virus, which was once almost entirely confined to travellers returning from tropical regions. The tiger mosquito that carries it has been expanding its range northward as European summers grow warmer.
The findings were published in the 2026 Europe report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change – a collaboration of 65 experts from research institutions and United Nations organisations published in the Lancet Public Health journal.
The health burden falls unevenly across income groups, researchers warned. Low-income households are 10.9 percentage points more likely than middle-income households to experience food insecurity driven by heatwaves and droughts, and more than one million additional people were affected by moderate or severe food insecurity in 2023 compared with the annual average for 1981-2010. People in the most deprived areas face higher wildfire risks and have less access to green space.
Deaths linked to air pollution from burning wood and other biomass at home were 4 per cent higher in 2022 than in 2000, a rise the researchers attribute partly to growing use of wood as a heating source as energy prices have climbed.
“Climate change health impacts are already apparent in Europe, and these will accelerate without proper scaling up of adaptation measures and global mitigation efforts,” the authors wrote.
The report, however, acknowledges some progress.
Coal use and carbon intensity both fell in 2023, and renewables supplied 21.5 per cent of Europe’s electricity, up from 8.4 per cent in 2016. Clean energy investment reached €427 billion in 2023, 86 per cent higher than in 2015.
But fossil fuel subsidies hit a record €444bn the same year, driven by government responses to the energy price crisis that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Despite committing to phase out such subsidies by 2025 in several international agreements, only Denmark has adopted a comprehensive national plan to do so. The report warns that unless others follow, progress toward 2030 net zero targets will be compromised.
“Unless the rest of Europe follows Denmark’s example, this setback will likely compromise reaching 2030 net zero goals,” the authors wrote.
Without stronger global action to cut emissions and better protect communities, the health harms documented will accelerate, the authors conclude.
“Redirecting financial flows to climate action is essential to reinforce Europe’s strategic direction and commitment to climate leadership. Part of these flows should finance the adaptation of low-income countries’ health-care systems, which currently receive very little funding for this purpose,” the authors wrote.
