Europe pays €444bn annually in fossil fuel subsidies, while citizens breathe in the consequences.

Hans Kluge, the regional director, Europe of the World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed his view that the long-term consequences of fossil fuel funding are not properly addressed in a World Economic Forum article.

Whilst European nations spend billions on fossil fuel subsidies while facing immense healthcare costs and loss of life, its leaders should revise economic models to prioritise human well-being and environmental sustainability over traditional GDP growth, he notes.

WHO estimates put the cost at 1,700 lives a day due to air pollution from burning fossil fuel and paying for additional healthcare costs to treat the consequences.

In 2024, approximately 63,000 people died from heat-related causes across Europe. Climate change was responsible for nearly 70 per cent of summer heat deaths in 854 European cities in 2025. Heat exposure alone cost 640 billion labour hours globally last year, or the equivalent of more than 300 million full-time jobs. At 3C of warming, GDP losses could reach 10 per cent globally.

Heat begats other indirect problems too, for example the Asian tiger mosquito. whose bite can transmit dangerous parasites and viruses, is now well-established in over 20 European countries.

Better policies, regulation on the supply chain, and environment monitoring are all seen as potential remedies that will help, but a reassessment of economic policy is also required. Not a wholesale rejection of the only model that’s ever worked, but a readjustment and the adoption of beyond-GDP indicators that capture health, equity and environmental sustainability.

Kluge ends by saying: “The window for action still exists, but it is narrowing fast. The commission has done its work. Now the rest of us need to do ours.”

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