Europe's summer heatwaves cause 50,000 deaths and €17bn in losses

Severe heatwaves that swept across Europe last summer are estimated to have caused around 50,000 deaths across the continent, marking the highest toll ever recorded. The extreme temperatures also erased about 0.17% of the European Union's GDP between April and September, amounting to nearly €17 billion ($18.9 billion).

A study released on Friday, led by scientists from Imperial College London, indicated that nearly two-thirds of the heat-related deaths during the summer would not have occurred without climate change.

A recent analysis by Bloomberg Economics also showed that the losses to Europe's GDP were two and a half times the average losses recorded during the same period in the previous decade.

The findings from these two separate studies highlight Europe's vulnerability to rising temperatures in what is likely to have been one of the hottest years in modern history.