New Delhi: Asia, the largest continent in the world with around 60 per cent of the global population, is now warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, according to a report released on Monday.
India reported nearly 48,000 cases of heatstroke and 159 deaths due to extreme heat in 2024.
The sea surface in Asia is also warming at nearly double the global average over the past decades, said the World Meteorological Organization’s “State of the Climate in Asia in 2024” report.
In 2024, the average temperature in Asia was about 1.04 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average, making it either the warmest or second warmest year on record, depending on the dataset.
Many parts of the region saw extreme heat events this year. Prolonged heatwaves hit East Asia from April to November. Japan, the Republic of Korea and China broke monthly average temperature records repeatedly.
