Climate crisis led to 200 heat-related deaths in Switzerland in summer 2025

Around 16,500 heat-related deaths in Europe's cities due to climate crisis Keystone-SDA

According to a new estimate by British researchers, climate change has led to around 16,500 additional heat-related deaths in European cities this summer. Around 200 of these died in Switzerland.

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This means that climate change was responsible for a good two thirds (68%) of all heat-related deaths in the 854 cities surveyed, as researchers from Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine reported on Wednesday. However, the actual figure is likely to be higher: The majority of heat-related deaths go unreported, they said.

+ How cities stay cool in hot summersExternal link

According to the studyExternal link, 835 deaths in Rome this summer can be attributed to climate change, 630 in Athens and 409 in Paris. In the 12 Swiss cities analysed, the researchers attributed a total of 207 heat-related deaths to climate change. Most of these (49) were in Zurich, followed by Bern (33), Geneva (29) and Basel (27).

The study has not yet been peer-reviewed.

Adapted from German by DeepL/jdp

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