Recent decades have seen a significant rise in the frequency and intensity of droughts and heatwaves globally. The 2022 European summer exemplified how the co-occurrence of heatwave and drought can lead to unprecedented impacts to natural and human systems with up to 50% cross losses and 61 672 heat-related deaths including 434 in Belgium alone. The disproportionate impacts of these compound...
Climate change is projected to intensify and increase the frequency of extreme rainfall across Europe as a result of higher atmospheric moisture in a warmer climate, leading to major socio-economic impacts. However, the role of future changes in atmospheric circulation patterns in shaping these extremes remains uncertain. Recent studies also suggest that climate models often misrepresent...
Climate extremes such as heatwaves, river floods, droughts, crop failures, including aspects of wildfires and tropical cyclones, are increasingly attributable to anthropogenic climate change. Yet how this translates into unprecedented levels of extreme event exposure in one’s lifetime remains unclear. Here we show that, neglecting adaptation, many of today’s youth will experience unprecedented...
The Permian Delaware Tight, located in Texas (USA), is the largest carbon bomb on Earth. Carbon bombs are defined as 425 fossil fuel megaprojects, of which about 60% are already under exploitation. With potential emissions of 27.8 GtCO₂, the Permian Delaware Tight would release three-quarters of total annual global CO₂ emissions. Exploiting this single project would consume more than ten...
