40°C and counting: Europe was built to beat the cold. Now heatwave is exposing its biggest weakness

Europe, once crafted to stay warm during harsh winters, now grapples with a grim new challenge: relentless heatwaves. Buildings that sheltered against frosty temperatures have turned into sweltering traps, revealing a serious flaw in adapting to intense summer heat. With infrastructure buckling under record temperatures and a surge in heat-related fatalities, a fundamental reevaluation of urban planning is desperately needed to face an increasingly hotter reality.

By Subhadra Srivastava