More people in India faced climate change-induced extreme heat in June than any other country: Study

Around 619 million persons in India bore the brunt of climate change-induced extreme heat between June 16 and June 24, according to a study published on Thursday by the United States-based non-profit Climate Central.

This is more than any other country.

China came in second with 579 million individuals exposed to climate change-related heat conditions during the same nine-day period, followed by 231 million in Indonesia, 206 million in Nigeria and 176 million in Brazil.

“In India, one of the country’s worst-ever and long-running heatwaves, which finally relented in mid-June, left more than 40,000 people with heatstroke, with over 100 dead,” the study said. “Temperatures approached 50 degrees Celsius, with a night-time low of 37 degrees Celsius, reportedly the highest ever recorded in India.”

The study, Analysis: Global extreme heat in June 2024 strongly linked to climate change, estimated that “nearly five billion people suffered from climate change-driven extreme heat over nine days in June”.

That is more than 60% of the global population.

The study said that these extreme heat conditions were made thrice as likely to occur due to climate change.

To draw this conclusion, the authors used a tool known as the Climate Shift Index, which “indicates how climate change has altered the frequency of daily high and low temperatures in any location around the...

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