Sustainability
Global warming caused 60 percent of Swiss heat deaths in the summer of 2022
Climate change is intensifying heat, leading to a significant increase in heat-related health problems. About 60 percent of the more than 600 heat-related deaths in the summer of 2022 in Switzerland can be attributed to human-induced global warming. This is shown by a study led by the University of Bern.
The study not only proves the excess mortality attributable to heat, it is one of the first studies worldwide to quantify the share of global warming in heat-related deaths: It is around 60 percent. “So without human-induced climate change, more than 370 people would not have died in Switzerland in the summer of 2022 as a result of the heat,” says Dr. Ana Vicedo-Cabrera, lead author of the study from the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM) and the Oeschger Center for Climate Research (OCCR) at the University of Bern.
The study also showed that heat-related deaths affected people over 65 years of age in nearly 90 percent of the cases. The number of deaths was generally higher among women than among men. Older women had the highest mortality rate among all the subgroups.