To combat the country\u2019s extreme heat, Spain is developing a national network of climate shelters.<\/p>\n
Government buildings will be allocated to protect citizens from the severe heatwaves the Western European country has been experiencing in recent years. In 2025, Spain sweltered through its hottest summer since records began with temperatures exceeding 45\u00b0C. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Announcing a plan to address the impact of heatwaves in December, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez described the events as \u201cthe new normal\u201d. \u201cDevastating droughts and heatwaves are no longer rare. Some summers, it\u2019s not separate waves we face, but one long heatwave stretching from June through August,\u201d said Sanchez. The government-funded shelters will be located in areas \u201cthat need them most, where the heat really hits people the hardest,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Offering people air-conditioned spaces and free water, the national network of climate shelters \u2013 refugios clim\u00e1ticos \u2013 expands on programs already introduced by regional governments. Barcelona City Council, for example, has established a network of more than 400 municipal sites in libraries, museums, sports centres, and shopping malls. Other networks exist in Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Murcia. <\/p>\n
The shelters offer those with limited resources refuge from the deadly heat, such as the homeless. They are also designed to protect the vulnerable \u2013 including older people, babies, and those with health problems \u2013 from dehydration, heat exhaustion, and heatstroke,<\/p>\n
Countries such as Spain, Italy, Greece, France, Croatia, Cyprus, Slovenia, and Serbia have the highest rates of heat-related mortality in Europe. Spain experienced more than 150,000 heat-related deaths in 2025 \u2013 the second-highest total ever recorded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To combat the country\u2019s extreme heat, Spain is developing a national network of climate shelters. Government buildings will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[40124,40125,304,40126],"class_list":{"0":"post-68995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pedro-sanchez","8":"tag-climate-shelters","9":"tag-heatwaves","10":"tag-pedro-sanchez","11":"tag-the-foreign-bureau"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116566099415710785","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}