METEOROLOGISTS have for the first time linked climate change to the 2003 heatwave believed to have caused more than 27,000 deaths in Europe.
The Met Office has reported that the temperatures were the highest in the continent for more than 500 years and were highly likely to be connected to human-derived pollution, particularly the use of fossil fuels.
The research, published in Nature magazine, warned that heatwaves, possibly worse than that of 2003, could strike every other year by 2050. The risk has more than doubled due to a rise in greenhouse gases.
As climate naturally varies, last year's heatwave could have been dismissed as a quirk of nature. However, by using complex climate models and new statistical methods, the study, by Peter Stott of the Met Office's Hadley Centre with Daith Stone and Myles Allen of Oxford University, separated human from natural factors.
Mr Stott said: ''We simulated 2003 summer temperatures over Europe, with and without the effect of man's activities, and compared these with observations. We found that although the high temperature experienced in 2003 was not impossible in a climate unaltered by man, it is very likely that greenhouse gases have at least doubled the risk and our best estimate is that such a heatwave is now four times more likely as a result of human influence on climate.''
The heatwave and this year's stormy summer may be further evidence of global warming, according to the research, which found the impact of climate change can often be seen in the frequency of extremes.
Dr Dan Barlow, head of research at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: ''While united international action must continue, here in Scotland the executive must take immediate action to stop us falling further behind the rest of the UK in cutting climate pollution.''
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