Nature Communications (Aug 2019)

Tens of thousands additional deaths annually in cities of China between 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C warming

  • Yanjun Wang,
  • Anqian Wang,
  • Jianqing Zhai,
  • Hui Tao,
  • Tong Jiang,
  • Buda Su,
  • Jun Yang,
  • Guojie Wang,
  • Qiyong Liu,
  • Chao Gao,
  • Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz,
  • Mingjin Zhan,
  • Zhiqiang Feng,
  • Thomas Fischer

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11283-w
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 1
pp. 1 – 7

Abstract

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Heatwaves are expected to increase under climate change, and so are the associated deaths. Here the authors determine the regional high temperature thresholds for 27 metropolises in China and analyze the changes to heat-related mortality, showing that the additional global-warming temperature increase of 0.5°C, from 1.5°C to 2.0°C, will lead to tens of thousands of additional deaths, annually.