UN urges world to prepare for more extreme weather

The UN alerted on Tuesday for the need to prepare for more intense heatwaves, urging everyone to draw up their own "contingency plans" to cope with extreme temperatures day and night.

"So we are seeing continuing growth in the frequency, duration and intensity of heat waves and this is entirely consistent with the science of global warming and IPCC reports. These events will continue to grow in intensity and the world needs to prepare for more intense heatwaves", said John Nairn, Extreme weather and climate specialist, an expert with the UN's World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

According to experts, heat-trapping greenhouse gases are the cause of climate change.

Gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide play a crucial role in preventing some of the sun's rays from being reflected back into space.

"One of the noticeable phenomena that we've seen is that the growth in simultaneous heatwaves around the northern hemisphere has increased six fold since the 1980s. This trend shows no sign of decreasing. It's also worth noting for the current event that July and August are the most critical months for extreme heatwaves. We've already seen them impact Asia, North and Central America, Africa, the Middle East and now Europe. So I'm not telling fibs. It is increasing", concluded the expert.

Experts agree that the best way to stop climate change is to eliminate fossil fuels replacing it with clean and sustainable forms of energy.