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One in five children worldwide are experiencing at least twice as many days of extreme heat as they did 60 years ago, warns UNICEF, calling for protection from temperatures that are potentially fatal to the most vulnerable organisms.
As a result of climate change caused by human activities, 2023 was the hottest year on record and 2024 could break a new record.
In this context, UNICEF has looked at one of the impacts of this warming, extreme heat, in particular the number of days exceeding 35°C each year, by comparing the average for the 1960s and that of the period 2020-2024.
Result, “One in five children now experience twice as many days of extreme heat as their grandparents did 50 or 60 years ago, and the trend is getting worse“, Lily Caprani, head of advocacy for the UN agency, explained to AFP.
This represents nearly a billion children (466 million according to data published on Tuesday) on all continents, even if certain regions are particularly affected.
Thus, in West and Central Africa, 123 million children (39% of children in this region) live more than a third of the year above 35°C, with peaks of 212 days in Mali, 202 in Niger, 198 in Senegal, 195 in Sudan.
“This heat is dangerous for anyone, but especially for young children.“, emphasizes Lily Caprani.
“Young children’s bodies are not just small adults. They are much more vulnerable to extreme heat, their hearts beat faster, they breathe faster“.
And for a baby who doesn’t sweat like an adult to regulate his temperature, “it can literally be deadly“, she warns, also drawing attention to the dangers for pregnant women and the babies they carry.
These extreme temperatures can also impact children’s neurodevelopment and mental health, and make them more vulnerable to diseases such as malaria, UNICEF warns.
Suffocating schools
Not to mention the difficulties of learning in stifling classrooms.
“By the first months of 2024, at least 80 million children have already lost school days due to closures caused by extreme heat” says Lily Caprani, estimating that the figure is probably much higher.
The data also shows that in 100 countries, more than half of children experience twice as many heatwaves (at least 3 days of high temperatures) as they did 60 years ago, representing, for example, 36 million children in the United States.
So UNICEF is calling for action. To limit the impacts by teaching parents to spot the signs of heatstroke, by training health personnel to treat them in emergencies, by investing in air conditioning systems for schools — a solution that unfortunately is not within the means of many countries.
But above all to slow down global warming on a planet where even higher temperatures, above 40°C, or even up to 50°C, are increasingly frequent.
As countries that signed the Paris Agreement must submit new greenhouse gas emission reduction targets by early 2025, “They can do so with ambition and with the knowledge that today’s children and future generations will have to live in the world they leave them.“, pleads the head of UNICEF, Catherine Russell, in a press release.
These children who will inherit this damaged planet are the least responsible for the climate change they are experiencing.”Yet most climate policies do not even mention children.“, deplores Lily Caprani.