UNICEF urges action as rising heat threatens children’s health and wellbeing

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday urged governments around the world to “act now” to bring rising global temperatures under control as they pose major threats to children’s health and well-being .

In its new report, A Threat to Progress, the UN body highlighted that children are most at risk as “days with temperatures above 95°F” become “increasingly common”.

“Nearly half a billion children live in areas that experience at least twice as many extremely hot days as their grandparents – many without the infrastructure or services to cope,” the report said.

“Children are not small adults,” warned UNICEF Executive Director Kathryn Russell. “Young bodies heat up faster and cool down more slowly. Extreme heat is especially dangerous for babies because of their faster heartbeats, so a rise in temperature is even more of a concern for children.”

According to the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, in 2021, high temperatures led to approximately 442,000 deaths, including 45,000 children, among whom 31,000 were under the age of five.

In addition, UNICEF highlighted that excessive levels of heat stress contribute to child malnutrition and heat-related non-communicable diseases (such as malaria and dengue fever).

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 globally, children are exposed to more severe, longer and frequent heat waves that can affect their brain development and hinder learning.

What is UNICEF doing to beat extreme heat?

In the coming months, all member states of the Paris Agreement, a legally binding international climate change treaty, are to submit new national climate plans that will set the course for climate action for a decade, the report said.

UNICEF called on world leaders, governments and private actors to:

• Reduce emissions and urgently meet ambitious international sustainability and climate change agreements.
• 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 degrading environment.
• Empower every child with developmental opportunities, education and skills that contribute to a better environment.

“Governments must act to bring rising temperatures under control, and there is a unique opportunity to do so right now,” Russell said.

“As governments now draw up their national climate action plans, they can do so with the ambition and knowledge that today’s children and future generations will have to live in the world they live in behind.”