Climate change doubled heat deaths in Belgium during the June 2026 heatwave
Reports and Proceedings
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 20-Oct-2026 00:17 ET (20-Oct-2026 04:17 GMT/UTC)
A new rapid attribution study by Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) finds that human-induced climate change made the June 2026 heatwave in Belgium 3.9°C hotter and more than doubled the number of heat-related deaths. Of the estimated 1,181 deaths statistically linked to the extreme temperatures recorded between 17 and 28 June 2026, 665 - or 56% - would not have occurred without anthropogenic climate change. This is the first time heat-related deaths during a specific Belgian heatwave have been attributed to human-induced climate change.
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Co-exposure to heatwaves and air pollution from landscape fires has been increasing globally over the past two decades, according to a new analysis by Yao Wu and colleagues. Respiratory and cardiovascular health risks from landscape fire-related air pollution, as well as from extreme heat, are well documented. These health risks, and the incidence of the fires themselves, are amplified during stretches of extreme temperatures. Wu et al. found that 55.9% of the global population experienced increasing co-exposure between 2000 and 2019. On average, 916 million people each year experienced at least one co-exposure day, increasing by 287 million people per decade. The global annual average co-exposure was 1.3 days per person, rising from 1 day in 2000-2009 to 1.7 days in 2010-2019. During the study period, the top 5 countries with the highest annual averages of person-days of co-exposure to heatwaves and landscape fire smoke pollution were the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil, and the Russian Federation.