biostudies-literatureUnknown645(8080)Quilcaille YExtreme event attribution assesses how climate change affected climate extremes, but typically focuses on single events^1-4. Furthermore, these attributions rarely quantify the extent to which anthropogenic actors have contributed to these events^5,6. Here we show that climate change made 213 historical heatwaves reported over 2000-2023 more likely and more intense, to which each of the 180 carbon majors (fossil fuel and cement producers) substantially contributed. This work relies on the expansion of a well-established event-based framework¹. Owing to global warming since 1850-1900, the median of the heatwaves during 2000-2009 became about 20 times more likely, and about 200 times more likely during 2010-2019. Overall, one-quarter of these events were virtuaNature392-398https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC12422948biostudies-literatureSystematic attribution of heatwaves to the emissions of carbon majors.PMC12422948Gudmundsson LLejeune QSeneviratne SIQuilcaille YThiery WHeede RSchumacher DLHeri CNaveau PGasser TSchleussner CFNath SfalseSystematic attribution of heatwaves to the emissions of carbon majors.Extreme event attribution assesses how climate change affected climate extremes, but typically focuses on single events^1-4. Furthermore, these attributions rarely quantify the extent to which anthropogenic actors have contributed to these events^5,6. Here we show that climate change made 213 historical heatwaves reported over 2000-2023 more likely and more intense, to which each of the 180 carbon majors (fossil fuel and cement producers) substantially contributed. This work relies on the expansion of a well-established event-based framework¹. Owing to global warming since 1850-1900, the median of the heatwaves during 2000-2009 became about 20 times more likely, and about 200 times more likely during 2010-2019. Overall, one-quarter of these events were virtua2025-01-01T00:00:00Z2025 Sep2026-06-01T23:28:54.187Z2026-05-23T03:08:11.438ZS-EPMC124229484093115310.1038/s41586-025-09450-9