Extreme heat 'impossible' without climate change - comment

Following a record hot June, large areas of the US and Mexico, Southern Europe and China experienced extreme heat in July 2023, breaking many local high temperature records. A  new study from World Weather Attribution has examined the role of climate change in this extreme weather. 

Professor Liz Stephens, Professor in Climate Risks and Resilience at the University of Reading, said: “The temperatures recorded during the recent heatwave across Southern Europe would have been impossible without climate change. 

"This extreme weather in Southern Europe is not the ‘new normal’. Heatwaves will get over 1 degree hotter again within 30 years even if the goals of the Paris Agreement are met.

"Despite this increasing risk, there are relatively simple solutions that can reduce the impacts of heatwaves, provided that governments act now. This means more investment in adapting our homes and urban environments, ensuring critical infrastructure is resilient, and putting plans in place to support the members of our communities most vulnerable to the extreme heat."