REUTERS/Guglielmo... Read moreSINGAPORE, July 25 (Reuters) - Human-induced climate change has played an "absolutely overwhelming" role in the extreme heatwaves that have swept across North America, Europe and China this month, according to an assessment by scientists published on Tuesday. Without human-induced climate change, the events this month would have been "extremely rare", according to a study by World Weather Attribution, a global team of scientists that examines the role played by climate change in extreme weather. "European and North American temperatures would have been virtually impossible without the effects of climate change," said Izidine Pinto of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, one of the study's authors, during a briefing with journalists. They also drove up the North American heatwave by 2C and the one in China by 1C. "The events we have looked at are not rare in today's climate," said Friederike Otto, a scientist with the Grantham Institute for Climate Change in London, speaking at the briefing.

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Persons: Roberto Klarich, Guglielmo, Izidine Pinto, El Nino, Friederike Otto, It's, David Stanway, Miral Organizations: REUTERS, Read, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, Grantham Institute, Thomson Locations: Canada, Italy, Rome, SINGAPORE, North America, Europe, China, United States, Rhodes, London