Abstract Humid heatwaves increasingly threaten the sustainable development of human societies and ecosystems. While carbon neutrality is widely advocated as a strategy to mitigate climate change, its specific effects on heatwave‐related inequalities remain insufficiently quantified. This study quantifies global disparity in risks associated with humid heatwaves under scenarios with achieving carbon neutrality (SSP1‐2.6, SSP1‐1.9) and those without (SSP5‐8.5, SSP3‐7.0, and SSP2‐4.5). Achieving carbon neutrality will greatly reduce heatwave risks, with mitigation effect increasing from the early to late future periods. Achieving carbon neutrality by the 2050s (SSP1‐1.9) reduces risks in the late future by approximately 45% compared to non‐neutrality pathways (SSP2‐4.5), offering more significant mitigation than achieving it by the 2070s (SSP1‐2.6). Moreover, SSP1‐1.9 is the only scenario that leads to a decline in the intensity, exposure, and risks of humid heatwaves across the entire future periods. Furthermore, achieving carbon neutrality also reduces disparities between higher‐ and lower‐income countries and between the Global South and the Global North, and this mitigation of disparities becomes more pronounced over time. Risk disparity between lower‐ and higher‐income countries decreases to 21.8% of that under SSP2‐4.5. These findings highlight the vital contribution of carbon neutrality in alleviating heat risks and associated disparities, contributing to climate fairness and informed mitigation.
Yu et al. (Sun,) studied this question.