Climate change will make increasing people less comfortable: Insights from the weather preference index

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Climate Science
• Human Health

Background:

• Climatic comfort significantly impacts human health and quality of life.
• Understanding future climatic comfort trends is vital for addressing climate change and sustainable development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the impacts of future climate change on global climatic comfort.
• To project population exposure to worsening climatic comfort under different emissions scenarios.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the Weather Preference Index (WPI) to evaluate climatic comfort.
• Analyzed climate projections from 2020 to 2100, considering various Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs).

Main Results:

• Climatic comfort is projected to worsen globally, with WPI decreasing from 2.03 in 2020 to 1.85 by 2100.
• Increased summer daily maximum temperatures are the primary driver of declining climatic comfort.
• Population exposure to worsening climatic comfort is expected to rise from 488 million to 3685 million, with rural populations disproportionately affected.

Conclusions:

• Urgent global policy intervention is required to address worsening climatic comfort.
• Integrated climate adaptation and mitigation strategies are essential to enhance human settlement resilience.
• Findings emphasize the need for proactive measures to counteract climate change impacts on human well-being.