Climate change in Europe is no longer something people can afford to think about as tomorrow’s problem. It is already working its way into everyday life.
A new report shows that rising heat is already eating into working hours, making healthy food more expensive, and putting the heaviest strain on the people who were already under the most pressure.
These findings come from the 2026 Europe Lancet Countdown report on health and climate change.
One of the contributing authors is CMCC scientist Shouro Dasgupta, whose work focuses on the economic impact of climate change on health.
Dasgupta’s work helps turn climate change from something abstract into something people can actually feel in daily life: less income, tighter budgets, and more pressure on systems that were already struggling.
Heat is already hurting work
One of the clearest signs of that is what heat is doing to people’s ability to work.
Across Europe, workers lost around 24 working hours per year on average between 2000 and 2023 because of rising temperatures.
The impact is especially harsh in outdoor jobs. Agriculture and construction stand out because people in those sectors are often working in direct heat for hours at a time, with very little protection from it.
When heat becomes dangerous, people have to slow down, stop for unplanned breaks, or in some cases stop work altogether.
That loss means less pay for some workers, more risk of injury, and more physical strain. It also means national economies are already being weakened by climate conditions that are still getting worse.
“The most urgent priorities are clear: Europe needs legally binding heat protections for workers, with early warnings directly linked to enforceable workplace safety standards, especially in high-risk sectors like agriculture and construction,” Dasgupta said.
“At the same time, social protection systems must be strengthened to respond to climate shocks – through income support, food assistance, and school meal programs. And ultimately, none of this will be enough without rapid and sustained emissions reductions.”
Food is getting harder to afford
The report also shows that climate change is feeding food insecurity across Europe, though not mainly because food is disappearing altogether. The bigger problem is price, and what those prices do to diet quality.
Heatwaves and droughts are reducing crop yields and damaging the quality of produce, especially fruits and vegetables. When that happens, prices rise and healthy food is often the first thing families start cutting back on.
According to the report, more than one million additional people are affected by climate-related food insecurity. That is a disturbing number, especially in Europe, where food insecurity is often treated as something more limited or more marginal than it really is.
“The mechanism is primarily through food prices and dietary affordability: heatwaves and droughts reduce yields and quality of fruits and vegetables, push up prices, and make it harder for households to maintain a healthy, diverse diet,” Dasgupta explained.
Geography’s influence on inequality
One of the clearest points in the report is that climate change is not hitting everyone in Europe the same way. It is making existing inequalities worse.
Part of that is about geography. Southern and south-eastern Europe are already seeing higher heat-related death rates and heavier economic losses, while in eastern Europe, older people are especially exposed during heatwaves.
But where people live is only part of the story. Income and living conditions matter just as much.
Low-income households face about an 11 percentage point higher risk of food insecurity under the same climate shocks.
If a family is already spending a large chunk of its income on food, any rise in prices hits harder. And if there is little money set aside, there is not much of a buffer when things get worse.
The same pattern shows up elsewhere too. Outdoor workers are exposed not only to greater health risks from heat, but also to the possibility of losing income when work slows down or stops.
Poorer neighbourhoods are often more exposed to extreme heat and wildfire smoke. And in some parts of Europe, older adults are more vulnerable during heatwaves simply because of where they live and how much support they have around them.
This is not tomorrow’s problem
What gives the report its force is that it is not really talking about some distant Europe that may one day be reshaped by climate change. It is talking about the Europe people are already living in.
Workers are already losing hours because of heat, families are already finding healthy food harder to afford, poorer households are already more exposed, and entire regions are already seeing the costs pile up.
Dasgupta’s recent work on heat prevention plans adds an important note here too: protection can help. Effective plans save lives, early warnings matter, workplace standards matter, and social support matters.
But the report is clear that adaptation on its own is not enough. Europe can protect people better, and it should. But unless emissions fall rapidly and stay down, the problem will keep expanding faster than protections can keep up.
Climate change is already reaching into daily life in very concrete ways. It is changing how people work, what they can afford to eat, and how secure they feel when the weather turns extreme.
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