Germany heat deaths hit record 15,800 this summer

Germany recorded a record 15,800 heat-related deaths this summer, the Robert Koch Institute said Thursday, after repeated heatwaves pushed temperatures above 40C.

The national public health institute said people over 75 were the worst affected group. It said about 9,600 heat-related deaths were recorded in one week in late June, and another 4,000 were recorded between late July and mid-August.

The institute said it has collected heat mortality data for the past decade and that the previous record was 8,900 deaths in 2018. A separate medical publication had estimated 10,000 heat deaths in 1994.

The RKI models heat-related mortality using statistical methods that compare deaths during summer weeks with and without heatwaves. Extreme heat can kill through heatstroke, but the institute said it more often proves fatal when combined with existing conditions such as cardiovascular, lung or kidney disease.

Heat and drought have affected much of Europe this summer, contributing to heat-related mortality, wildfires, crop damage and lower water levels in major rivers. France, Britain and Spain have also reported thousands of excess summer deaths.

Climate change and heat adaptation were on the agenda of a two-day cabinet retreat this week led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz, but no new measures were announced. Merz said Germany's 16 states are primarily responsible for heat protection and are already set to receive 100 billion euros, or $116 billion, over the next 12 years from a special infrastructure and climate protection fund.

Merz said Wednesday there was no shortage of programmes or funds, and that the government would examine possible aid for agriculture and forestry after drought and forest fires.

Thorsten Frei, parliamentary chief of Merz's CDU party, rejected a proposal by centre-left SPD ministers to anchor climate protection in the German constitution as a joint task of national, state and local governments. He told Deutschlandfunk radio that such a model risked one level of government pointing the finger at another, with little ultimately getting done.

Environmental Action Germany accused the government of failing to adopt an effective heat-protection measure after the extreme summer. The group called for legal changes and funding to help municipalities and cities remove heat-retaining paved surfaces and plant more trees.