Extreme temperatures kill five million a year, study claims

Extreme temperatures, which are becoming more common because of climate change, are responsible for five million global deaths every year, according to a new study.

Researchers said that 9.4 per cent of deaths globally between 2000 and 2019 were linked to extreme weather.

The number of those who died because of extreme temperatures fell slightly over the two decades compared with previous periods but the trend is likely to reverse as the planet heats up, say researchers from Monash University in Australia and China’s Shandong University.

The planet’s temperature is on track to heat to about 2.9°C above the pre-industrial average by 2100, according to estimates by the Climate Action Tracker research centre.

Scientists forecast that a warming of more than 2°C would be catastrophic for life on the planet.

The study, published on Wednesday, said that 4.6 million people died from extreme cold and 490,000 from the heat during a period when temperatures rose 0.26°C each decade.

The past two decades were the hottest since the pre-industrial era, with the 10 warmest years on record occurring during this period.

Prof Yuming Guo, one of the authors from Monash University, said that in the long-term “climate change is expected to increase the mortality burden because hot-related mortality would be continuing to increase”.

Half of the deaths, 2.6 million, were in Asia.

China on its own accounted for 1.04 million deaths, while 1.2 million were in Africa and another 835,000 in Europe, which has been hit by a series of heatwaves.