Joint Press Conference “Braving the Heat: Climate Scientists Explain the Summer of 2026”

Between June and August 2026, temperatures in Western Europe reached highs never before recorded. Along with heatwaves, residents across Europe endured wildfires, heat stroke and other risks associated with climate change. Amidst these emergencies, local representatives need to adapt quickly and effectively. A scientific explanation is needed to understand what happened this summer and what will likely continue to occur in the future.

Join Impetus4Change (I4C) and EXPECT on 21 September at 11:30 CEST for an online press conference bringing together climate scientists and researchers from both Horizon Europe projects to discuss what the extraordinary summer of 2026 can tell us about our changing climate.

What’s in it for you?

Hear directly from leading climate scientists as they unpack what happened this summer, why it happened, and what the latest evidence tells us about what comes next. Researchers from both projects will take stock of summer 2026 by presenting their latest insights on the current state of climate change.

Preliminary Agenda

Time	Agenda
11:30-11:35	Welcome & Introduction Arctik – Communication for Sustainability, WP leader for Communication & Dissemination for Expect and Impetus4Change
11:35-11:40	Meet the projects Markus Donat, Project Coordinator, EXPECT, and Stefan Sobolowski, Project Coordinator, Impetus4Change, introduce the projects and their relevance to the extreme weather events of summer 2026.
11:40-11:50	Making sense of summer 2026 Markus Donat presents the heat and drought extremes of summer 2026, their connection to the latest climate science, and implications for climate adaptation, drawing on recent EXPECT research.
11:50-12:00	Living with extreme heat: lessons from Barcelona Paloma Trascasa Castro, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, presents heatwave frequency and duration in Barcelona under different global warming levels, and the impacts of extreme heat on health, energy and water resources.
12:00-12:30	Q&A with press Questions and discussions with researchers and scientists

Interested in participating?

Register now by filling in this form and submitting your questions in advance.

We’ll share the final agenda and access link with registered participants shortly.