How has global warming fuelled extreme weather this year? 5 climate change stories to read this week

This year has seen a variety of extreme climate disasters, from flooding in Pakistan to wildfires across Europe. Climate change has exacerbated the intensity of these events, as global warming increases the evaporation of surface waters into the atmosphere, drying areas with little rain and increasing rainfall in others.

Warmer air increases the amount of water that the atmosphere can hold, meaning more moisture is taken from the surface. Atmospheric moisture has increased by 5% to 20% in general compared with the pre-1970s.

Read more about the impact of global warming on our planet.

The Scope 1, 2 and 3 system has been developed by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. In order to make the reductions in emissions required to limit global temperature rises to well below 2°C – the central aim of the Paris Agreement – the categories allow businesses and organizations to better measure their progress.

Scope 1 are 'direct' emissions, such as energy a factory uses to make products. Scope 2 are 'indirect' emissions, such as the emissions created from the production of the energy that that factory uses. Scope 3 are also indirect emissions, but they are produced by the customers or suppliers.

Learn more about the different scopes of emissions.

As many as 35% of people expect they will be displaced in the next 25 years due to climate change, according to a survey conducted for the World Economic Forum by Ipsos. And in the latest Book Club Podcast, environmental journalist and author of Nomad Century, Gaia Vince explores how the world can rehome these people and protect the planet.

Find out what solutions Gaia Vince has for the millions of current and future climate migrants.

Today, around 65 million people work in the energy industry worldwide. The energy transition means that now more than half of these are clean energy workers, according to a recent report by the International Energy Agency.

If current climate pledges are met, the IEA predicts that another 13 million workers could be employed in the clean energy sector by 2030.

Discover more about the impact of the energy transition on energy workers.

A megadrought is a drought that persists for decades. The longer the drought, the more devastating the effects are on the surrounding ecosystem.

A UCLA study published earlier this year, found that a drought in the American West and Southwest is the most extreme megadrought in the last 1,200 years. For California, the effects have been severe, ranging from citizens being forced to ration their water to farmers resorting to growing less water-intensive crops.

The cause of this megadrought? Climate change - as this megadrought can directly be attributed to high temperatures and low precipitation levels according to the UCLA study.

Read more about the Western US megadrought.