Heatwaves that occurred once every 3 years are now happening every 200 days

04.05.15 By
This article is more than 8 years old

Heatwaves that occurred once every three years are now happening every 200 days because of climate change, new research has revealed.

Three-quarters of the world’s extremely hot days are attributable to climate change, the study in Nature Climate Change journal found.

One in five extreme rain events, such as the three-day rainstorm that lashed NSW last week, are due to the rise in global temperature.

Climate change is making the air hotter and wetter and driving the increase in extreme weather events.

Last year, we had the hottest year on record and Australians are already feeling the impacts of climate change through more extreme weather events and more frequent and intense heatwaves.

As scientists get better and better at calculating the influence of climate change on extreme weather events, the case for accelerating action on climate change is strengthened.

Carbon emissions must be reduced rapidly and deeply if the worst of the extreme heat is to be avoided.

But the good news is that clean energy technologies, such as solar and wind, are advancing rapidly and are now competitive in price with fossil fuel technologies in many places and international action is ramping up.

The challenge for the next five years for action on climate change is clear – to move rapidly away from damaging fossil fuels like coal towards clean energy sources like solar and wind.