The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday urged governments around the world to “act now” to control rising global temperatures, as they pose significant threats to the health and well-being of children.
In its new report, “A Threat to Progress,” the United Nations agency noted that children are at greater risk as “days with temperatures above 95°F” become “increasingly common.”
“Nearly 500 million children live in areas where days of extreme heat are at least twice as long as those of their grandparents, and many of them lack the infrastructure or services necessary to cope with it,” the report said.
“Children are not school-aged adults,” warned UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Children's bodies heat up faster and cool down more slowly. Extreme heat is especially dangerous for babies, because their heart rates are faster, so rising temperatures are even more alarming for children.”
According to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, high temperatures caused approximately 442,000 deaths in 2021, including 45,000 children, of whom 31,000 were under the age of five.
In addition, UNICEF highlighted that excessive levels of heat stress contribute to childhood malnutrition and heat-related non-communicable diseases (such as malaria and dengue).
It can also threaten food and water security, damage infrastructure and disrupt services for children.
The analysis also showed that while extreme heat is increasing worldwide, children are exposed to more severe, longer and more frequent heat waves that can affect their brain development and hinder learning.
What is UNICEF doing to combat extreme heat?
In the coming months, all member states that are party to the Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty on climate change, will submit new national climate plans that will set the course for climate action for a decade, the report said.
UNICEF has called on world leaders, governments and private entities to:
- Reduce emissions and urgently meet ambitious international agreements on sustainability and climate change.
- Protect the lives, health and well-being of children and the resilience of their communities by adapting essential services to a changing climate, more frequent disasters and a degraded environment.
- Provide every child with development, education and skills opportunities that contribute to a better environment.
“Governments must act to control rising temperatures, and there is a unique opportunity to do so now,” Russell said.
“As governments now develop their national climate action plans, they can do so with ambition and the knowledge that today's children and future generations will have to live in the world they live in.”
