Quarter of heatwaves this century 'virtually impossible' without climate change, study finds

A quarter of heatwaves this century would have been "virtually impossible" without human-caused climate change, according to a new study.

And while it's incredibly difficult to attribute specific disasters to climate change, let alone individual carbon emitters, the study also claims to have done just that — finding carbon emissions from individual companies drastically increased the likelihood of certain heatwaves.

The study, which was published today in Nature , analysed the individual contributions of 180 large fossil fuel and cement producers, and attributed their individual impact to heatwaves from 2000 to 2023.

It found that Australia's 2018 heatwave would have been near impossible to occur without anthropogenic carbon emissions.

Research like it may help people initiate climat