ROMA – According to a new analysis by theUNICEFone in five children – or 466 million – live in areas that experience at least double the number of extremely hot days each year compared to just six decades ago. Comparing the 1960s average with the 2020-2024 average, the analysis warns of the speed and scale with which extremely hot days – measured at more than 35 degrees Celsius/95 degrees Fahrenheit – are increasing for nearly half a billion children worldwide, many of whom lack the infrastructure or services to cope. The Director-General of theUNICEF Catherine Russell: “Extreme heat is increasing, disrupting children’s health, wellbeing and daily routines.”
Some data from UNICEF analysis. The analysis also looks at country-level data and finds that in 16 countries, children are now experiencing more than a month more extremely hot days than they did six decades ago. In South Sudan, for example, children are experiencing an annual average of 165 days of extreme heat this decade, up from 110 days in the 1960s, while in Paraguay, the number of days has risen to 71, up from 36 then. Globally, children in West and Central Africa are the most exposed to extremely hot days, with the most significant increases over time, the study finds. 123 million children – or 39 percent of children in the region – are experiencing on average more than a third of the year – or at least 95 days – with temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius, reaching 212 days in Mali, 202 days in Niger, 198 days in Senegal and 195 days in Sudan. In Latin America and the Caribbean, nearly 48 million children live in areas that experience double the number of extremely hot days.
The situation in Italy. In Italy, in the 1960s there was a frequency of 4.97 heat waves per year, in the period 2020-2024 this value has almost tripled, equal to 13.49; the duration of the same in the 1960s was 4.44 days, currently it is equal to 5.90; the severity was 1.47 degrees Celsius, now it is 2.09; the number of days of extreme heat per year (over 35 ° Celsius) has gone from 0.79 to 4.72, almost 6 times higher. In Italy, 7.6 million children, or approximately 90%, live in areas where the frequency of heat waves has doubled since the 1960s, and 3.4 million in areas where it has tripled. 6 million children, or 70%, live in areas where the number of days of extreme heat has doubled today, and another 6 in areas where the number has tripled.
Health threats. Heat stress within the body, caused by exposure to extreme heat, poses a specific threat to the health and well-being of children and pregnant women, especially if cooling interventions are not available. It has been linked to pregnancy complications, such as gestational diabetes, and adverse birth outcomes, such as stillbirths, low birth weight and preterm birth. Excessive levels of heat stress also contribute to child malnutrition, non-communicable diseases such as heat-related diseases and make children more vulnerable to infectious diseases that are spread by high temperatures, such as malaria and dengue. It has also been shown to affect neurodevelopment, mental health and well-being.
Children exposed to more severe, longer and more frequent heat waves. Extreme heat is even more troubling when experienced over longer periods of time. While extreme heat is increasing in every country around the world, the analysis shows that children are also exposed to more severe, longer and more frequent heatwaves. In 100 countries, more than half of children are exposed to twice as many heatwaves as they were 60 years ago. In the United States, for example, 36 million children are exposed to twice as many heatwaves as they were 60 years ago, and 5.7 million are exposed to three times as many.
The risks of food contamination. The impact of climate-related risks on children’s health is multiplied by the fact that climate-related risks affect food and water safety and contamination, damage infrastructure, disrupt services for children, including education, and cause displacement. Furthermore, the severity of these impacts is determined by the vulnerabilities and inequalities that children face based on their socioeconomic status, gender, geographic location, existing health status and country context.
Plans for the next few months to address the problem. In the coming months, all Member States that have signed up to the Paris Agreement will have to submit new National Climate Plans – Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC 3.0). These plans will set the course of climate action for a decade. They are a time-limited opportunity to set out concrete plans to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. L‘UNICEF calls on leaders, governments and the private sector to seize this opportunity to take urgent and bold climate action that supports every child’s right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, through the following actions.
THE PROPOSALS
REDUCE emissions and urgently meet ambitious international agreements on sustainability and climate change to keep rising temperatures in check.
PROTECT children’s lives, health and well-being and the resilience of their communities, including by adapting essential social services to a changing climate, more frequent disasters and a declining environment. For example, by ensuring that every health worker is trained to detect and treat heat stress and by making health and education facilities resilient to extreme heat.
DARE to every child, throughout his or her life, the developmental opportunities, education and skills needed to become an environmental defender.
How the data was calculated. Temperature data are calculated using daily aggregated temperature data from the ERA5 reanalysis (Muñoz, 2019; accessed 10 July 2024), obtained and processed using the platform Google Earth Engine. The data on the child population, obtained from the data of the Global Human Settlement Population (GHS-POP – R2023A; Schiavina, 2023; visited 10 July 2024), were downloaded from the site Copernicus ftp.
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– 2024-08-16 00:37:58
