Bangladesh faces 44 extra extreme heat days: Global study

A major international study has found that Bangladesh experienced 44 extra days of extreme heat in the past year due to human-caused climate change, enduring a total of 94 days of unusually high temperatures between May 2024 and May 2025.

The findings, released today (30 May), come as the world prepares to mark "Heat Action Day" on 2 June — a global initiative to raise awareness and preparedness for heat-related health risks, reads a press release.

The report was jointly conducted by World Weather Attribution (WWA), Climate Central, and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre. It concludes that nearly 4 billion people worldwide — more than half the global population — faced at least 30 additional days of extreme heat in the past year, largely due to human-driven global warming.

According to the study, Bangladesh ranks among the most severely affected countries, where major heatwaves have become significantly more likely as a direct result of the climate crisis.

For instance, a heatwave from 20–24 September 2024, was found to be 11 times more likely due to climate change, while another heatwave from 3–8 November 2024, was five times more likely.

"Climate change is clearly challenging life on every continent," said Dr Mariam Zachariah, a researcher at the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, and part of the WWA team. "In the past year alone, it added a full month of dangerous heat for four billion people. That's half the population of the planet. The scale of this crisis is staggering."

Bangladesh, with its densely populated urban area and large outdoor workforce, is particularly vulnerable to prolonged heat. The excessive temperatures are straining public health systems, reducing agricultural yields, lowering labor productivity, and severely impacting daily life and livelihoods.

The study analysed data from 247 countries and territories, finding that in 195 of them, the number of extreme heat days had at least doubled due to climate change. All 67 major heatwaves recorded over the last year were made more intense and more frequent by the burning of fossil fuels and rising greenhouse gas emissions.

"There is no place on Earth untouched by climate change — and heat is its most deadly consequence," said Dr Kristina Dahl of Climate Central. "We must urgently adapt to this new climate reality and act now to prevent it from getting worse."

Dr Friederike Otto, co-lead of WWA and Senior Lecturer in Climate Science at Imperial College London, emphasized the need for urgent action. "Every barrel of oil burned, every ton of carbon dioxide released, and every fraction of a degree of warming means more people suffering from extreme heat. We must shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy — and we must do it now."

Echoing the need for preparedness, Roop Singh, head of Urban and Attribution at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, said, "We urgently need to strengthen our capacity to respond to heatwaves — through better early warning systems, robust heat action plans, and long-term urban planning. The evidence linking climate change and heatwaves is undeniable."