Nearly 100,000 heatwave-related deaths in 2023 are likely attributable to climate change

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-10-07 02:00

Australia; International; VIC; QLD

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Unprecedented (at the time) heatwaves that hit around the world in 2023 contributed to 178,486 excess deaths, more than half of which can be attributed to manmade climate change, according to an estimate from Australian and international experts. The researchers used climate and mortality data from around the world to estimate how many people globally have been historically dying each year as a result of heatwaves, and how many deaths in 2023 were heatwave-related. They say 54.29% of the 2023 deaths are attributable to manmade climate change, with Southern, Eastern and Western Europe seeing the highest mortality rates that year.

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Journal/
conference: The Innovation

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Monash University, Queensland University of Technology (QUT)

Funder: This study was supported by the Australian Research Council (DP210102076) and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (APP2000581). W.H. was sup- ported by the China Scholarship Council (no. 202006380055). Z.Y. was supported by the Monash Graduate Scholarship and the Monash International Tuition Scholarship. S.L. was supported by an Emerging Leader Fellowship of the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (no. APP2009866). Q.Z. was supported by the Program of Qilu Young Scholars of Shandong University, Jinan, China. Y.G. was supported by the Fellow- ship (no. APP2008813) of the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. R.X. was supported by the VicHealth Postdoctoral Fellowship 2022. S.T. was supported by the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (grant no. 18411951600). A.G. was supported by the EU’s Horizon 2020 project, Exhaustion (grant no. 820655). A.U. was supported by the Czech Science Foundation (project no. 22-24920S). F.S. was supported by the Medical Research Council UK (grant no. MR/ R013349/1), the Q8 Natural Environment Research Council UK (grant no. NE/R009384/1), and the EU’s Horizon 2020 project, Exhaustion (grant no. 820655). Y.G. was supported by the Leader Fellowship (no. APP2008813) of the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, de- cision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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