The last Café Europa of the season addressed a critical issue: the climate crisis does not affect everyone or every place equally. The session’s title, “The Heat Isn’t the Same for Everyone”, proved entirely fitting for a conversation that combined scientific rigor, institutional perspective, and communicative analysis to understand how extreme weather events are intensifying and exacerbating existing social inequalities, particularly in the Mediterranean region.

The journalist Júlia Manresa moderated the session and opened with a striking reference: a New York Times report showing how Barcelona and the increasingly shrinking beaches of Montgat symbolize the loss of the European summer paradise due to the climate crisis. This is not an exaggeration. After Milan, Barcelona is the European city with the highest number of deaths attributable to this summer’s first heatwave. And the victims are primarily the most vulnerable: elderly people, those with chronic illnesses, or those living in energy poverty.

Mediterranean Cities: Critical Impact Zones

Dr. María del Carmen Llasat, professor of Physics at the University of Barcelona, presented alarming data: while global warming has increased the average global temperature by 1.6 ºC compared to pre-industrial levels, the Mediterranean is already approaching +1.9 ºC. This region is a true climate hotspot. The sustained rise in temperature is compounded by an increase in extreme events—heatwaves, DANAs (intense rainstorms), floods, and droughts—which are becoming more frequent, severe, and harder to manage.

According to Llasat, 67% of Catalan beaches are retreating at an average rate of 1.6 meters per year. Warming of the sea and air increases atmospheric humidity and promotes heavier, less predictable rainfall. But the damage is not only environmental; it is social. Those most exposed to heat are not only individuals with fragile health but also those living in precarious housing, without air conditioning, or without community networks to protect them.

Administration Has Tools, but Faces Obstacles

Ana Romero, Director of Climate Action Services at the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB), explained what is being done locally to adapt. She highlighted the deployment of local climate adaptation plans, water regeneration projects (which could cover up to 44 hm³ of shortage in the event of a drought), and the promotion of renewable energy through Next Generation EU funds.

However, Romero was clear: the tools exist, but the administrative system works against them. Budget rigidity, bureaucracy, and lack of flexibility mean that, for example, the energy savings from a solar installation cannot be directly reinvested in other areas, such as the maintenance of green spaces.

Awareness and Climate Justice

The session also addressed a fundamental question: why, despite having more information and data than ever, does the public not react more forcefully? Why is it so difficult to change habits? Manresa pointed out that, often, climate emergency communication has led to despair. Any threat, if not accompanied by a narrative and examples of transformation, can lead to inaction.

Romero gave the example of an AMB vulnerability map showing how neighborhoods with similar social characteristics do not suffer equally from heat if they have nearby green spaces or have benefited from urban rehabilitation projects.

“Climate justice is not an abstract concept,” she said, “but a concrete way to plan better and avoid worsening inequalities.”

Llasat, for her part, called for a renewed sense of individual and collective responsibility. She reminded attendees that, in events like the floods in Valencia, the lack of information and awareness multiplied the number of victims.

“We cannot fall into the ‘I can’t do anything’ mindset. If I act, my neighbor will too,” she argued.

A Europe That Cannot Retreat

The debate concluded with a European perspective. The speakers expressed concern about the slowdown—or even reversal—of European climate policies, precisely when greater ambition is needed. Romero argued that, despite regressive tendencies in Brussels, European municipalities and regions maintain their climate commitments. Llasat emphasized Europe’s key role as a space of shared rules that can foster alliances and demand collective transformations, including in the business sector.