While Ireland recently fell shy of breaking its longest heatwave record just a few days ago, elsewhere, temperatures above 40°C are no longer exceptional. They have become a recurring aspect of summer life.

Indeed, Europe is heating up at a rate roughly twice the global average. It is the fastest-warming continent on Earth, recording over 175,000 heat stress-related deaths each year between 2000 and 2019, according to the World Health Organization. 

Heatwaves are not just a public health concern, however, they are also a major economic challenge. Warm temperatures reduce physical endurance, weaken concentration, increase accident risk, and in turn, lower productivity. Public debate on the matter has repeatedly focused on one important question: When, exactly, is it too hot to work?

Occupational safety regulations will have to evolve to provide answers to such questions and will increasingly need to mitigate intensified climate risks if temperatures continue to rise year on year.

Yet, if protective measures stop at mere mitigation, we risk ignoring a far greater issue: How to prepare workers for the profound economic transformation that climate change will inevitably lead to. This is where many contemporary climate policies reveal a significant shortcoming.

Adaptation and mitigation are not competing priorities though. Both depend on people. Research conducted by the European Training Foundation (ETF) — an agency of the EU — shows that while many governments are focused on emissions targets and clean technologies, the human capital needed to deliver the green transition remains neglected.

In our recent assessment of climate plans across EU neighbouring countries, the ETF found that skills development, workforce planning, lifelong learning, and labour market adaptation remain fragmented and often poorly integrated into climate strategies. Climate action ultimately succeeds or fails where people do, making this a particularly weak link in the chain.

As it stands, the transition to a low-carbon economy is already reshaping labour markets, and employment in the clean energy space is growing fast. This is encouraging, with all sectors witnessing the emergence of new, related occupations, from energy auditors and EV mechanics to heat pump installers and more. All of these require new skills and usher in new ways of working. Yet, across Europe, employers consistently report difficulties finding workers with the competencies they need, meaning skills shortages are proving a major bottleneck to decarbonisation, among others.

This will slow down the deployment of renewable energy systems and delay energy-efficient construction and renovation, thwarting climate ambitions.

While climate-related health hazards remain a major cause for concern then, and the labour market continues to exhibit weaknesses in dealing with the green transition, education systems too will have to be reformed in line with projected climate impacts. The more these intensify, the harder it will become to prepare people to face them. Every lost training opportunity, every heat-induced drop in productivity slows the development of skills and capabilities needed for an effective transition.

We must ask ourselves; how can we equip people with the knowledge, skills and adaptability required to confront a climate-disrupted world?

Breaking this cycle far exceeds simply “reacting” to each new heatwave or flash flood. It demands that policymakers anticipate the skills needs of tomorrow, and that they develop and implement the right systems to prepare people today. Workforce planning, skills intelligence and forward-looking education systems are no longer peripheral concerns; they are climate policies in their own right. The sooner governments identify emerging skills needs and roll out relevant learning opportunities, the less likely they are to fall into a climate-education trap, whereby climate impacts steadily erode the very human capital needed to address them.

Europe’s heatwaves and extreme weather conditions expose more than meteorological concerns.

They reveal an underlying vulnerability: the widening gap between climate ambition and human preparedness. Ultimately, climate impacts will not be meaningfully mitigated until societies possess the skills, knowledge and capabilities needed to deliver on the climate transition.

Human capital is not a tangential aspect of climate policy. It is its essential foundation. A better future for all cannot rely on ambitious emissions targets or infrastructural investments alone. It will depend on people developing the right skills to make this happen. In this regard, there’s a lot more to be done.

• Pilvi Torsti is director of the European Training Foundation (ETF), a Turin-based decentralised agency of the EU.