Heat waves will increase in the future

LRegardless of efforts to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, heat waves in countries such as the United States, Western Europe, China and Japan will be three to 10 times more frequent by 2100 than they are today, according to a study published Thursday. Journal Communications Earth & Environment.

As part of the Paris Climate Agreement signed at COP 21 in 2015, participating countries agreed to adhere to this limit.

To achieve this goal, each country has submitted its own Climate Action Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

However, study authors fear that these efforts may not be enough to reduce temperatures.

“Record-breaking heat waves in recent summers have occurred more frequently in areas such as North America and Europe,” said Harvard University researcher Lucas Vargas Cebbedello.

The study is based on indices that take into account the combination of air temperature and humidity to measure the effect of heat on the human body.

The scientists said they used a probability-based method to calculate a range of future scenarios, combining historical data with population projections, economic growth and carbon concentration.