As Europe comes to grips with its fifth heat wave of the year, the research arm of Swiss Re AG is warning of far-reaching consequences.
“Record heat underscores Europe’s chronic heat risk,” the authors of the Swiss Re Institute report said on Tuesday.
Record-breaking temperatures are battering a continent that’s less equipped to deal with the shock than other parts of the world. Only about 20% of European households have air conditioning, for example, compared with 76% in North America, Swiss Re Institute notes. That has implications for everything from human health to economic productivity, it said.
Europe is now struggling to cope with temperatures that “reduce agricultural productivity, strain water and energy systems, damage infrastructure, and lower labor productivity,” the report’s authors said.
The continent is heating up almost twice as fast as the rest of the world, a development that Swiss Re Institute warns can have “severe” consequences. The comments follow a report last month by Munich Re AG, in which it warned of the “dangerous mix” posed by El Niño and global warming.
