The goal of limiting global mean warming to well below 2 °C, and possibly to 1.5 °C, emerged in the Paris Agreement, motivated by the belief that achieving these targets 'would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change'.

A potential decline in irrigation due to groundwater depletion or insufficient surface water would not only directly affect agriculture, but also could alter surface climate. In this study we investigated how loss of irrigation affects heat wave frequency, duration, and intensity across fifteen heat wave indices (HINs) using a regional climate model that incorporated dynamic crop growth. Averaged across all indices, loss of irrigation increased heat wave frequency, duration, and intensity.