Climate change will sharply boost the frequency of lethal heat waves even if humanity caps global warming at two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), the core goal of the Paris Agreement, scientists said Monday.
Fulfilling that 196-nation pledge would, by 2100, still leave nearly half the world's population exposed at least once a year to bouts of heat and humidity that have proven deadly in the past, they reported in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Under a "business-as-usual" scenario, in which greenhouse gases continue pouring into the atmosphere at current rates, three-quarters of humanity will annually face what the researchers call "lethal heat events."
A man uses a branch with leaves to try to put out flames from a forest fire near Gois, Portugal, June 19, 2017. A sweltering heat wave is blamed for deadly fires in the country.
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