"Record-breaking heat is now routine. The devastating heatwave that wracked southwestern Europe in 2003 and claimed more than 70,000 lives produced temperatures not experienced in the region since the sixteenth century. Subsequent summers have extended this trend. In 2024, the continent recorded its hottest summer on record. In urban environments, where most of the world's population lives, the problem is especially acute. "If you build a city, inevitably it will be hotter," says Edward Ng, an architect at the Chinese University of Hong Kong."
"Living with ever-intensifying heat could have huge economic and health consequences. "About 9% of the human population is living out of the so-called human niche, which means they are living at temperatures that we never had before," says Matthaios Santamouris, a physicist at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. "This may increase up to 25% or 30% by 2050." He points out that rising temperatures have been linked to increased hospitalization rates and mortality."
Record-breaking temperatures have become routine across Europe, with the 2003 southwestern heatwave and 2024’s hottest summer on record illustrating the trend. Urban areas concentrate and intensify heat because built environments retain and generate warmth. A 2021 study found exposure to temperatures above 30 °C nearly tripled in over 13,000 cities between 1983 and 2016. Growing heat threatens health and economies, with rising hospitalization and mortality rates and worsening mental-health outcomes. About 9% of people already live outside the historical human temperature niche, a share that could rise to 25–30% by 2050. Solutions range from increased shade to reflective surface coatings, but interventions require careful, context-specific analysis to avoid ineffective or harmful outcomes.
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