During these three months, about 6.2 billion people experienced at least one day when the heat got worse due to climate change.
A recent study by Climate Central has found that climate change affected every part of the world between June and August 2023. It affected all 180 countries and 22 territories. About 98% of the world’s population, which is about 7.95 billion people, experienced hotter temperatures due to carbon pollution in the atmosphere and it was also the hottest summer ever recorded.
During these three months, about 6.2 billion people experienced at least one day when the heat got worse due to climate change. This is the highest level of impact according to Climate Central’s methodology. Additionally, climate change caused approximately 2.4 billion people in 41 countries to experience extreme hot temperatures for more than 60 days.
Almost half of the global population, i.e. 3.9 billion people, faced 30 or more days of high temperatures due to climate change during these three months. For 1.5 billion people, every single day’s temperature during this period was affected by climate change.
The effect of climate change was not the same everywhere. Due to climate change during this period, people in G20 countries experienced 17 days of extreme heat on average, while residents of the UN’s least-developed countries experienced 47 days of extreme heat. Small island developing states faced 65 days of extreme heat.
Commenting, Dr. Andrew Pershing, Vice President of Science at Climate Central, said, “Almost no one on Earth has escaped the effects of global warming over the past three months. We saw temperatures that would have been almost impossible, or very difficult, without human-caused climate change. These temperatures were also seen in places where it is usually cool at this time of the year. According to us, carbon pollution is the main reason for this record-breaking heat.”
The study used the Climate Change Index to measure the impact of climate change. This is a method that combines models and observations to determine how likely local daily temperatures are to be affected by carbon pollution. The results are scored on a scale from 1 (at least 1.5 times more likely) to 5 (at least 5 times more likely), indicating how much climate change makes extreme temperatures more common.