Climate change role clear in many extreme events but social factors also key, study finds

A forest fire rages in the Kyrenia mountains, in the north of the island of Cyprus. Photograph: Birol Bebek/AFP/Getty Images

Climate change is to blame for the majority of the heatwaves being recorded around the planet but the relation to other extreme events and their impacts on society is less clear, according to a study.

“I think on the one hand we overestimate climate change because it’s now quite common that every time an extreme event happens, there is a big assumption that climate change is playing a big role, which is not always the case,” said Friederike Otto, a climate change and environment professor at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London, who was one of the lead authors of the research.