World Weather Attribution and Climate Central’s report titled “When Risks Become Reality: Extreme Weather In 2024” warns that every country needs to prepare for rising climate risks to minimize deaths and damages in 2025, and beyond
By Salam Rajesh
41 days of dangerous heat were infused by human-caused climate change this year, harming human health and ecosystems, says climate watch groups World Weather Attribution and Climate Central in their report “When Risks Become Reality: Extreme Weather In 2024” released on Friday.
The year-in-review analysis, which went through the pace of the current year’s experience of extreme weather events, warns that every country needs to prepare for rising climate risks to minimize deaths and damages in 2025, and beyond.
The report stressed that a much faster transition away from fossil fuels is needed post-haste to avoid a future of relentless heat waves, prolonged drought, extensive wildfires, cyclonic storms, and large-scale floods of serious magnitudes with the potential for widespread loss and damages around the world.
Emphasizing that climate change had a stronger influence than El Niño on many of the extreme weather events that occurred this year, the study by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) placed on record that climate change intensified 26 of the 29 weather events that killed at least 3,700 people and displaced millions across the globe.
Dr Friederike Otto, lead scientist at WWA and Senior Lecturer in Climate Science at Imperial College London, observed that the impact of fossil fuel warming has never been clearer or more devastating than in 2024. Extreme weather killed thousands of people, forced millions from their homes and caused unrelenting suffering. The damaging floods in Spain, hurricanes in the US, extended drought in the Amazon, and floods across Africa are few instances of the severity, Dr Otto said.
The first six months in 2024 saw record-breaking temperatures, extending the streak started in 2023 to 13 months, with the world’s hottest day in history recorded on July 22 this year. “We know exactly what we need to do to stop things from getting worse: stop burning fossil fuels. The top resolution for 2025 must be transitioning away from fossil fuels, which will make the world a safer and more stable place”, Dr Otto re-emphasized.
The WWA noted that there were 41 extra days of dangerous heat during 2024 due to human-induced warming. These extra ‘heat days’ represent the top 10 percent warmest temperatures between 1991 and 2020 for locations around the world, it said.
The extensive heat fueled heat waves, droughts, wildfires, storms, and heavy rainfall causing floods throughout the year in several pockets of the globe. In total, 219 events met World Weather Attribution’s trigger criteria used to identify the most impactful weather events. The team of scientists studied 29 of these events and found clear evidence of climate change in 26.
Floods in Sudan, Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad were the deadliest event studied by the group, with at least 2,000 people killed and millions displaced. If global warming reaches up to 2 degrees Celsius, which could happen as early as the 2040s or the 2050s, the regions could experience similar periods of heavy rainfall every year, the WWA warned.
Quoting an extreme example, the WWA report observed that Hurricane Helene left 230 people dead across six states in the US, making it one of the deadliest mainland US hurricanes in the last 50 years, second only to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Climate change made the high sea temperatures that fueled Hurricane Helene 200 to 500 times more likely and increased its devastating rainfall by 10 percent. Just two weeks later, the US southeast was hit again by Hurricane Milton and a rapid analysis found it was also intensified by fossil fuel warming.
Daniel Gilford, climate scientist at Climate Central, observed that research indicates climate change is making hurricanes stronger. Human-caused ocean warming is boosting hurricane maximum wind speeds, allowing them to reach a full category higher, on average, which means they are more destructive than they would have been in a world without carbon pollution, Gilford observed.
Climate change is threatening irreversible changes to ecosystems. Brazil’s Pantanal wetland, a biodiversity home to endangered species found nowhere else on earth, experienced one of its worst wildfire seasons ever in 2024. Climate change made the hot, dry and windy conditions that drove the wildfires during June this year around 40 percent more intense.
The world is not cutting emissions and preparing for climate change quickly enough. The consequences are record-breaking extreme weather events that cause deaths, displacement, and loss of livelihoods, according to Ben Clarke, Researcher at the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London.
Joseph Giguere, research associate at Climate Central, opined that the daily temperatures, hot enough to threaten human health, have become more common because of climate change. Giguere further noted that in many countries residents are exposed to additional weeks’ worth of heat reaching risk thresholds that would be virtually impossible without the influence of global warming.
Julie Arrighi, Director of Programs at the Red Crescent Climate Centre, noted that another devastating year of extreme weather had shown that people in general are not prepared for life at 1.3 to 1.5 degrees Celsius of increased warming. “Our studies continue to show the need to enhance preparedness for extreme weather events to reduce loss of life and damages. In 2025, it is crucial that every country accelerates efforts to adapt to climate change”, she observed.
The WWA and Climate Central report listed four key strategies to tackle in 2025, to meet climate change challenges and protect people from extreme weather events. The climate watch groups suggest a faster shift away from fossil fuels, improvements in early warning system, real-time reporting of heat deaths, and importantly, international finance to help developing countries become more resilient.
With year 2024 going down in history as the “hottest” year in a century’s time, it is less expected that things will improve immediately with the fossil fuel lobby sticking to their guns literally. The hot debates at the recent Conference of Parties under the eyescan of the United Nations are being seen primarily deviating from the crucial agenda of achieving the Paris Climate Agreement and other important climate negotiations.