People Exposed to Climate Change: March-May 2024

Read the full report: People Exposed to Climate Change: March-May 2024
Download the data: 21 major regions, 175 countries, and 684 cities around the world

Key Facts

March, April, and May 2024 each broke monthly global temperature records. During this period, the effects of human-induced climate change, mainly from burning fossil fuels, were evident in all regions of the world, particularly in the form of extreme heat. This analysis uses Climate Central’s Climate Shift Index (CSI) to determine the influence of climate change on temperatures around the globe.

About one in every four people on the planet experienced temperatures made at least three times more likely because of climate change (CSI level 3 or higher) every day from March 1, 2024 to May 31, 2024. In other words, they experienced temperatures with a very strong influence of climate change.  

Global exposure peaked on April 6, 2024, when 2.7 billion people (one in every three people worldwide) experienced unusual heat at CSI level 3 or higher.

In 58 countries, the average person experienced a very strong influence of climate change on at least two out of every three days during the last three months. These countries were primarily located in: Central, Eastern, and Western Africa; Southeast Asia; Central America and the Caribbean; South America; and small island developing states within Polynesia and Melanesia. 

Notably, about 44% of all people in Africa and one in every three people in South America experienced the most extreme levels of climate-change-driven heat (at least 60 total days at CSI level 5) during the last three months.

The cities with the greatest exposure to attributable heat each felt a very strong influence of climate change on 90 or more days, accounting for at least 98% of the season: Quito, Ecuador; Makassar, Indonesia; Guatemala City, Guatemala; Caracas, Venezuela; Kigali, Rwanda; and Monrovia, Liberia.

Data

• Download data for March 1, 2024 - May 31, 2024 Climate Shift Index (CSI) levels for 21 major regions, 175 countries, and 684 cities around the world.

Major funding provided by the Bezos Earth Fund and The Schmidt Family Foundation.