Instead, many countries are looking at other adaptive measures—artificial shading, more green spaces, and updating building codes to ensure that newer buildings are better designed to handle heat.
More immediately, local authorities are taking precautions like heat action plans, makeshift cooling centers, and communicating the dangers of heat waves well in advance, but they have been unable to adequately respond to health emergencies that result from heat waves, Mistry says. “Local authorities, despite their best efforts, have not been able to prepare the public health services and emergency services in advance to account for an expected spike in, for instance, hospital-related admissions related to heat,” he adds. That’s, in part, because the E.U.’s population is aging: the number of senior citizens, who are more vulnerable to the effects of extreme heat, has risen by approximately 40% over the past two decades. What’s more, many of Europe’s health care systems are already stretched thin—even without an extreme weather event to contend with.