The finding is the latest stark example of the severe effects global warming is already having on communities, even with just a 1C increase in global temperatures to date. It adds pressure on the world’s nations at the Cop27 UN climate summit in Egypt to deliver meaningful action to protect and compensate affected countries. The floods that hit between June and November were some of the deadliest on record in the region. Hundreds of people were killed, 1.5 million displaced and more than 500,000 hectares of agricultural land damaged. The study, by an international team of climate scientists as part of the World Weather Attribution (WWA) team, used weather data and computer models to compare the likelihood of heavy rain in today’s warming world with a world without global warming. Such rain would be extremely rare without human-induced warming, they found, but is now expected once a decade. A critical issue for success at Cop27 is the establishment of funding for “loss and damage” – compensation for rebuilding after the inevitable climate disasters that are increasingly affecting vulnerable developing nations, which did little to cause the climate crisis. These countries require action from wealthy nations. The WWA study said the reason the floods were so devastating was that people in the region were already highly vulnerable to extreme weather events, as a result of poverty, violent conflict and political instability. “The analysis found a very clear fingerprint of anthropogenic climate change,” said Professor Maarten van Aalst, director of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, who is at Cop27. “The floods caused enormous suffering and damage, especially in the context of high human vulnerability. “As scientists, we are not in a position to tell the Cop27 negotiators whether it should be a damage or loss fund, or a facility or a mosaic of solutions, as they are all being discussed,” he said. “But what’s very clear from the science is that this is a real and present problem, and it’s particularly the poorest countries that are being hit very hard, so it’s clear that solutions are needed.” Professor Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and also at Cop27, said that analyzes such as those by WWA clearly showed the link between global warming and climate disasters: “Thus the legitimacy of loss and damage does not it was never as high as it is today.” The WWA team also assessed the 2021 drought in the central Sahel region of Africa that destroyed crops and contributed to a food crisis in 2022. However, scientists were unable to estimate the impact of the climate crisis due to a lack of weather station data. highlighting the need for investment in meteorological stations. “We’re seeing all over the world how important it is to know what the weather is like today so we can properly understand how it’s changing and where we need to focus our adaptation efforts,” said Dr Friederike Otto at Imperial College London. The most important stories on the planet. Get all the week’s environmental news – the good, the bad and the must-haves Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. A recent Guardian analysis of hundreds of studies has revealed the devastating escalation of extreme weather that is causing people around the world to lose their lives and livelihoods. At least a dozen major events, from killer heat waves to boiling seas, would be nearly impossible without human-caused global warming. Major events in 2022 include catastrophic floods in Pakistan, where global warming has increased rainfall intensity by about 50%, and record summer drought in the Northern Hemisphere, which would be expected only once every four centuries without the climate crisis. A deadly heat wave in South Asia earlier in the year was 30 times more likely. WWA’s analysis focused on two regions: the Lake Chad Basin, where the wet season saw above-average rainfall, and the lower Niger Basin, where there was less, heavier rainfall. The study team included researchers from Nigeria, Cameroon, South Africa, Europe and the USA.
