Climate change has worsened the 10 deadliest extreme weather events since 2004 that caused more than 500 deaths, according to a new report on Thursday.

Scientists from the World Weather Attribution group at King's College London found that human-driven climate change has worsened the deadly storms, heat waves and floods that have hit Europe, Africa and Asia over the past 20 years.

Re-analyzing the 10 deadliest weather events from 2004, the study noted that the devastating heat wave in 2003 that killed tens of thousands across Europe is the "first irrefutable evidence" that climate change was not a abstract and distant future threat.

"This was the first time that scientists clearly identified the fingerprint of climate change in a specific weather event and marked the beginning of a new field of research that is now known as 'attribution science,'" the report said.

Citing other extreme weather events over the years, the study said there is no such thing as a natural disaster, but it is the vulnerability and exposure of the population that turns meteorological hazards into humanitarian disasters.

"Our work, alongside the broader scientific literature, now shows that with every ton of coal, oil and gas burned, all heat waves get hotter and the vast majority of extreme rainfall events, droughts and tropical cyclones become more intense. "

The report also pointed out that in some cases such as the deadly Russian heat wave of 2010, the role of climate change in exacerbating the scale of the weather events is likely to have been underestimated.

"More extreme heat waves around the world are made more likely by climate change," he added.

Other deadly events the scientists focused on were the 2011 drought in Somalia, the 2015 heat waves in France, and most recently, heat waves across Europe in 2022 and 2023 that caused a combined 37 deaths. .

Tropical cyclones in Bangladesh, Myanmar and the Philippines in 2007, 2008 and 2013, respectively, were also assessed in the study, which found that all had become more likely and more intense due to climate change.

Citing the importance of reducing vulnerability and exposure to save lives from deadly weather events, the study stated that the inevitable losses and damages that occur as a result underscore the urgent need for mitigation to reduce the rate and number of these extremely rare events in the future. /AA