Heat hazards responsible for more than half of all climate-related deaths in last five years
For Hazards The Globally 57% Water, Heat Weather, Reported Related Ap/charlie Total And Picture: Of Deaths Accounted Climate Related Riedel
Heat-related hazards led to more than half of all weather and climate-related deaths in the last five years, a new report has said.
The findings are published ahead of Cop29, which begins in Baku in Azerbaijan on Monday.
The State of Climate Services report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) explores the current state of play and also documents the progress that has been made in the last five years.
It is based on contributions from 38 partners, including major climate finance institutions.
Despite an overall increase in climate spending, the report notes the continued investment is not necessarily translating into support for building the capacities of the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services.
These are essential organisations for supporting climate action at national and local level through the provision of climate information services, it reads.
In particular, the report says Latin America and the Caribbean face a growing need for early warning services to deal with hazards such as forest fires and droughts.
In the period from 2020 to mid-2024, floods remained the most frequently reported disaster.
However, heat-related hazards became the leading cause of death, accounting for 57% of the total reported weather, water, and climate-related deaths globally.
Storms resulted in the greatest economic losses, contributing to 59% of the total, according to data from the International Disaster Database EM-DAT, cited in the report.
Too few nations are creating tailored climate services, and there are still significant gaps in the coverage of observing networks in least developed countries and small island developing states.
It comes in a year which experts say is certain to be the warmest on record.
The latest data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) shows global temperatures from January to October were 0.71C higher than the average from 1991-2020, the highest on record for the period, and 0.16C higher than the same period for 2023 — the world’s hottest year to date.
And as 2023 was 1.48C above pre-industrial levels, according to the European dataset, it is also virtually certain 2024 will be more than 1.5C higher than before the industrial revolution.
That would mean the world has breached — temporarily at least — a key threshold in the fight against dangerous climate change.
The data also shows October 2024 was the second-warmest month globally, second only to October 2023, and was 1.65C above pre-industrial levels.
Responding to the figures, Mike Childs, head of science, policy and research at Friends of the Earth, said: “Our ailing planet is sending us every signal that it is in crisis — the latest being the deadly floods in Spain which have claimed the lives of so many and wreaked colossal damage."
Domestically, Wednesday was the warmest ever November day for 11 of Met Éireann's weather stations.
Claremorris in Mayo was most notable, with a temperature of 18.2C being a full 2C higher than the previous record for the station — which had stood for 81 years.
Two other stations also broke their record by 2C: Mount Dillon in Roscommon (18.8C, breaking a record held since 2004) and Athenry in Galway (18.6C, breaking a record held since 2010.)
Provisionally, Wednesday's highest temperature from all 25 primary stations was recorded at Phoenix Park, Dublin, with 19.2C.
That was just 0.9C off the highest ever November temperature of 20.1C, which was recorded at Dooks, Co Kerry, on November 1, 2015.
CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB