The World Health Organization classifies heat waves in Europe as a health emergency and calls for urgent climate intervention

The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned of the danger of delay in confronting climate change as the heat crisis worsens and dozens of victims are recorded in Western European countries, stressing that heat is no longer just a climate phenomenon, but has turned into a health emergency that requires an urgent and coordinated response.

In a post on the X platform, Ghebreyesus called on world leaders to make investing in resilient health systems capable of adapting to the climate a top priority, in parallel with accelerating efforts to reduce the factors causing the climate crisis.

The World Health Organization urged the competent authorities to take immediate and proactive measures to protect the population and reduce human losses, which included cooling cities, ensuring all residents’ access to water and shade areas, monitoring the conditions of the groups most at risk, as well as preparing for sharp increases in temperature.

The organization indicated that the European region is the fastest warming in the world, with temperatures rising at a rate nearly double the global average, causing the death of more than 200,000 people over the past four years, in addition to a 30% increase in the heat-related death rate over the past two decades, which portends an increase in the probability and severity of heat waves in the future.