The months-long heat wave in June, which set some European temperature records, has put pressure on accepting global warming in a continent that’s used to a relatively mild climate and has some lofty emission reduction targets.

The EU has been aiming to be a leader in climate change mitigation efforts and was one of the first major economies to target a 2050 net-zero objective, which is lawfully binding.

But a ‌June heatwave that peaked at above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in parts of Europe has revealed how its businesses, amenities and critical infrastructure are not prepared for the consequences of climate change in the here and now.

“We have not been as good as we should be on adaptation,” Poland’s Deputy Climate Minister Krzysztof Bolesta told Reuters as some power supplies were cut, outdoor work was suspended in some areas, and trains were cancelled in Germany, and a cargo train was derailed in Sweden as temperatures on the rails were so high they buckled.

In Spain, 1,000 excess deaths were reported, which they blamed on record heat, among the countries hardest hit.

In most cases, the EU does not have to adapt buildings and public facilities to withstand extreme heat, as it leaves that task to national or regional authorities, which have a better grasp of their needs.

“There’s no point in trying to say from Brussels how the Greeks ⁠or the Spaniards need to battle wildfires,” EU Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra, who later this year will set out an EU-wide “climate resilience plan”, told journalists.

They know that much better than we know because the Dutch know that much better how to build dikes, he said, and the EU plan would be based on common scenarios and best practice.

The EU’s own investment in adaptation, though, is still tiny, considering that global warming is warming up the European continent more rapidly than anywhere else.

Official data from the EU’s combined budget indicates that 72% of the money spent, from 2021 to 2025, was on mitigation of the warming effects, or greenhouse gases, while only 18% was allocated to adaptation, and 9% to both fields.

Financial incentives for mitigation

The EU and its member governments have a set of financial tools in place to curb emissions, such as subsidies to develop renewable energy, and the EU’s Emissions Trading System, which caps the amount of emissions that companies can produce and allows the more environmentally friendly companies to profit from selling their unused emission permits.

However, there was no such incentive to invest in adaptation measures in Poland for businesses, according to Bolesta.

“It’s easier to see how to do the mitigation business case because you’ve got the cap-and-trade system, you’ve got carbon credits, you’ve got renewables companies.”

“Adaptation, it’s generally considered a long-term benefit at a long-term cost, so delayed gratification, but at times a case of insurance too – it may or may not pay off.”

Climate change-fuelled ⁠extremes like heatwaves, drought and floods cost the near-stagnant European economy 0.3% points in output last year, Dutch bank ING said in a note this week.

The ‘uncomfortable truth’ is that heatwaves have ‘graduated from ‘ a weather event to ‘macro variable’ quietly, ING said.

It appears the thermometer has become a major predictor, the article notes.

For economies, it is from the loss of tourism and/or farm income in the southern nations to the challenge of working in offices that are not prepared for hot weather.

While 90-95% of offices in southern Europe are air-conditioned, only half of German offices are air-conditioned, according to the Federal Environment Agency, which estimated that one day of heat above 30 degrees Celsius (86 F) costs the German economy €430 million ($465 million) because of productivity losses.

“For decades, we (Germany) have built against cold and not against heat, and that is an adaptation gap,” said Geraldine Dany-Knedlik from German Institute for Economic Research DIW.

But there was some progress in changing attitudes, said Irene Seemann, who leads the North Rhine-Westphalia state’s climate adaptation efforts in businesses.

If the sport of football were used as a metaphor, Seemann said Germany has been one-nil down, with heat not being much of a factor. “Now businesses realise that it directly affects their business.”

There are certain adaptation fixes that are straightforward and affordable.

German flooring company Project Floors installed reflective film on its windows at the historical glass-domed headquarters in Cologne and managed to reduce the temperature in the building by 10 degrees.

Project Floors managing director Bernd Greve said it was easy, effective and could not be powered.

Others require more fundamental changes to workplaces and labour organisation, for example, by rearranging work shifts to cooler times of the day, right through to reinventing public transport networks and urban spaces.

Better than a lethal heat wave in 2003, when there were around 70,000 deaths in excess of normal in Europe as a result of the heat, as peer-reviewed studies have found.

Over 20 years later, the World Health Organisation issued a statement this week that estimated that in Europe, more than 80% of heat-related deaths would have resulted if the adaptation measures that are now in place had not been implemented. These include heat-health action plans, early warnings, cooling spaces and outreach to vulnerable people.

“They are saving lives now,” said WHO’s regional director for Europe, Hans Henri P. Kluge. More of them are needed throughout the European area.