People around the world suffered an average of 41 additional days of dangerous heat this year due to human-caused heat Climate changeaccording to a group of scientists, who also said climate change has worsened much of the world’s damaging weather throughout 2024.
The analysis by researchers at World Weather Attribution and Climate Central comes at the end of a year that shattered one climate record after another. Heat around the world is likely to have made 2024 the hottest year on record measured and contributed to a number of other deadly weather events that spared few.
“The finding is devastating, but not at all surprising: climate change did indeed play a role, and often a large role, in most of the events we studied, causing heat, drought, tropical cyclones and heavy rains are becoming more likely and intense around the world, destroying the lives and livelihoods of millions and often countless people,” said Friederike Otto, head of World Weather Attribution and a climate scientist at Imperial College, during a media briefing on the scientists’ findings.
“As long as the world continues to burn fossil fuels, things will only get worse,” Otto warned.
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Millions of people suffered from oppressive heat this year. Northern California and Death Valley baked. Hot daytime temperatures scorched Mexico and Central America. Heat endangered already vulnerable children in West Africa. Soaring temperatures in southern Europe forced Greece to close the Acropolis. In South and Southeast Asian countries, the heat led to school closures.
Earth has experienced some of these The hottest days ever recorded and it is the hottest summer yetwith a 13-month heatwave that has only just ended.
For the thermal analysis, the team of volunteer international scientists compared daytime temperatures around the globe in 2024 with the temperatures that would have been expected in a world without climate change. The results have not yet been peer-reviewed, but the researchers use peer-reviewed methods.
They found that some areas experienced 150 days or more of extreme heat due to climate change.
“In the world’s poorest and least developed countries, the numbers are even higher,” said Kristina Dahl, vice president of climate science at Climate Central.
What’s worse, heat-related deaths are often underreported.
“People don’t have to die in heat waves. But if we can’t convincingly communicate that a lot of people are actually dying, it’s much harder to raise that awareness,” Otto said. “Heat waves are by far the deadliest extreme event, and it is the extreme events where climate change is a real game-changer.”
Scientists say this year was a warning that the planet is coming dangerously close to the Paris Agreement’s warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to the pre-industrial average. It is expected that the Earth will soon exceed this threshold, although it will not be considered breached until warming continues for decades.
Researchers examined 29 extreme weather events this year that collectively killed at least 3,700 people and displaced millions, and found that 26 of them had a clear link to climate change.
The El Niño weather pattern, which is naturally warming the Pacific Ocean and changing weather around the world, made some of these weather events more likely earlier in the year. However, the researchers said most of their studies found that climate change played a larger role than this phenomenon in triggering the 2024 events. Warmer seawater and warmer air led to more destructive storms, according to the researchers, while temperatures led to lots of record-breaking rainfall.
Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center on Cape Cod who was not involved in the research, said the science and results were solid.
“Extreme weather events will become increasingly frequent, more intense, more destructive, more costly and more deadly until we can reduce the concentration of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere,” she said.
Without action, significantly more climate extremes can be expected, the United Nations Environment Program said in the fall, as the burning of fossil fuels has released more carbon dioxide into the air this year, which is warming the planet, than last year.
“Countries can reduce these impacts by preparing for and adapting to climate change. While the challenges faced by individual countries, systems or places around the world vary, we see that every country has a role to play,” she said.
The warnings come amid concerns in many countries that the US government under President-elect Donald Trump will do this Start by undoing commitments Washington launched an initiative in January to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and work toward a transition to more sustainable energy production.
Trump has made that clear He believes fears about climate change are exaggerated and has previously dismissed the idea of man-made global warming as a hoax. Trump fell in his first term as president 100 environmental rules enacted by his predecessor Barack Obama.
