The cost of the heat: 6.3 billion euros in two weeks

What does heat cost us?

6.3 billion euros was the cost of the heatwave from 17 to 30 June 2026. We have calculated this exclusively for the German newspaper Handelsblatt.

Read the article now (in German, paywall)

During the period under review, temperatures in some regions rose above 40 degrees on several occasions. Daily average temperatures were well above the norm, meaning that the usual night-time cooling largely failed to materialise. Hospitals were pushed to their limits, and emergency centres had to be set up. At the same time, the heat highlights the weaknesses in Germany’s infrastructure: tarmac is cracking on the motorways, liquefied joint sealant is bringing trams to a standstill, buildings are overheating, and demand for cooling and energy is rising.

Heat is by no means merely a health risk, but also a growing economic cost factor.

We have previously calculated for the Federal Ministry of Labour (BMAS) that a day with temperatures above 30 degrees costs the German economy 431 million euros. For the first time, we have now also quantified the consequences of extreme heat above 35 degrees – at 984 million euros, they are more than twice as high.

Of particular significance are productivity losses, which account for around 97 percent of the total costs associated with heat. People have to take more frequent breaks, work more slowly or find it harder to concentrate – across millions of workers, this adds up to considerable economic damage. Added to this are around 76,500 heat-related absences across Germany for every day when temperatures exceed 30 degrees.

Our whitepaper shows how heat affects the economy and what can be done about it.

Our approach

The calculations for the Handelsblatt are based on the study Occupational Safety and Health in the Context of Climate Change, for which the project team used a similar methodology on behalf of the BMAS. The difference in the current study lies in the definition of a hot day: in the BMAS study, a day with a temperature of 30 degrees or above counts as a hot day, whereas the Handelsblatt’s calculations additionally took into account the effects of days with temperatures above 35 degrees.

The calculation covers the following aspects of the economic costs:

• direct productivity losses
• sick leave due to heat and the resulting costs of lost working hours for employers
• work-related accidents caused by heat and the associated costs of lost working hours

The following factors, amongst others, were not included:

• healthcare costs for illnesses and accidents
• deaths
• higher energy costs for cooling
• damage to buildings or infrastructure, such as railway tracks or motorways
• impacts on agriculture

Links and downloads 

To the article in Handelsblatt (in German, paywall)

To the whitepaper (PDF, in German) 

Project team: Lukas Sander, Milena Miechielsen, Paulin Zahn, Myrna Sandhövel

Last updated: 22.07.2026