According to child rights organization Save the Children, two-thirds of children across Western Europe were exposed to extreme temperatures in the first six-and-a-half months of 2026. This figure is three times higher than the total for the whole of 2025 and exceeds any entire year since 2003. In Germany, the number of children exposed to extreme heat in the first half of 2026 surpassed the combined total of the past five years. In the UK, 10 million children experienced extreme heat, more than in any single year over the past three decades.