France recorded the highest excess death toll during the June 2026 European heatwaves, with over 2,700 heat-related deaths according to EuroMOMO data — more than England and Wales combined. The extreme temperatures are becoming harder to survive without major heat protection infrastructure, and climate scientists say the heatwave's severity would have been nearly impossible without human-caused climate change. Most European countries have not yet scaled up cooling centers or nighttime refuge systems despite years of warnings from the European heat health action network.