Heat Waves Test Which Lives Governments Really Protect

As Europe faces its second major heat wave of 2026, governments are closing schools, adjusting class hours, and telling people to stay indoors. But for the most vulnerable, these warnings are not enough. Extreme heat is a weather event. Its deadly consequences, however, are a failure of planning. When governments overlook the specific needs of children, older people, and people with disabilities, their rights are disproportionately impacted. Human Rights Watch warns that heat waves become disasters when officials fail to prepare for unequal impacts. Children suffer first. Academic research shows that learning declines when classroom temperatures rise above the mid-20s Celsius. In 2024, the United Nations Children's Fund found that heat waves disrupted school for 171 million students worldwide. At Springwood High School near Sydney, Australia, students were tired and distracted in hot classrooms without air conditioning. They used temperature sensors to prove that rooms exceeded 24°C for 60 percent of the summer, showing exactly why their education was suffering. Older people face the highest risk of heat-related illness and death, especially older women. Factors include increased cardiovascular strain and a higher likelihood of living alone. Despite this risk being predictable, the vast majority of heat-related deaths in European heat waves have been among people 65 and older. In Spain's 2022 heat wave, 98 percent of heat-related deaths were in this age group. People with disabilities also face heightened danger. In Andalusia, southern Spain, they described to Human Rights Watch the physical and mental toll of extreme heat in 2022: difficulty breathing, infections, loss of consciousness, loneliness, and social isolation. All felt abandoned by authorities whose heat action plan included no specific measures for people with disabilities outside of institutions. Governments need stronger plans that protect children, older people, and people with disabilities from increasingly common extreme heat. Officials must consult these communities to ensure that those most affected help shape responses—before more harm and deaths occur.