UN issues call to action ‘in four critical areas’ on lethal climate-related heat
By the Climate Centre
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres today makes a call to action “in four critical areas” on the growing dangers arising from extreme heat worldwide: care for the vulnerable, better protection of exposed workers, boosting resilience using data and science, and limiting the global temperature rise to the Paris target of 1.5°C.
“In the past 100 days alone, we witnessed heat-related deaths in countries from Saudi Arabia to India, heatstroke warnings across Japan, schools closing in Bangladesh and the Philippines, severe heat warnings issued by governments in south-east Europe, and new temperature records across the United States,” a new UN report issued in the Secretary-General’s name says.
Produced by his climate action team, with inputs from ten UN agencies, the report quotes new data from the International Labour Organization warning that over 70 per cent of the global workforce – 2.4 billion people – are now at high risk of extreme heat.
“In many countries, air conditioning and green neighbourhoods are a luxury of the wealthy,” it says. ”Urban poor and displaced persons are particularly defenceless in the face of extreme heat.
“The very young, elderly, persons with disabilities, pregnant women, people with comorbidities, and outdoor workers are particularly vulnerable.”
The UN also concludes that global cities that now house more than half of humanity “are heating up at twice the global average rate due to rapid urbanization and the urban heat island effect.
“Heatwaves present an acute danger to urban centres, where structural, socio-economic, and demographic factors magnify their impacts.”
‘This call to action comes at a pivotal moment’
At 1.5°C of global warming, the Paris target that now stands on the brink of being missed, models show nearly 70 cities facing 150 or more days a year of at least 35°C – a figure that rises to just under 200 cities at 3°C of warming, according to the report.
Climate Centre Director of Programmes, Julie Arrighi, who also leads on heat issues, said today: “The Secretary-General’s call to action on extreme heat comes at a pivotal moment, with the Earth having just seen its warmest day in recent history, according to the Copernicus agency, and 2024 looking set to follow last year into the record books.
“The dangers associated with rising heat are among the most pressing manifestations of the climate crisis, and developing a comprehensive global strategy to accelerate protective actions is crucial to reducing impacts.”
In its most recent relevant statement late last month (to the 2024 ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment), the IFRC’s Under Secretary General, Nena Stoiljkovic, echoed the view that “climate change impacts all of us, but it doesn’t do so equally” – an obvious example being access to air-conditioning.
“Scientists conservatively project that annual heat-related deaths will increase fourfold by mid-century,” she said, and “[w]e must ask ourselves: are we truly prepared for such an eventuality? And as temperatures rise, who is being left behind?”
In May, the Climate Centre, World Weather Attribution and Climate Central released a report concluding that the world’s population was affected by 26 extreme-heat days that would probably not have occurred without climate change.
The new UN report highlights the likely impact of extreme heat on humanitarian agencies and resources, pointing out that countries as diverse as Kazakhstan, France, Mexico, Senegal, and Viet Nam have recently deployed significant emergency responses to severe heatwaves.
In general, it says: “Economic growth is reduced [by heat], labour productivity diminished, water supplies exhausted, energy demand increased, precious crops decimated, school days missed, key infrastructure degraded and homes made uninhabitable, all of which puts more pressure on already-stretched public services and may overwhelm humanitarian assistance.”
In the critical area centred on protection of the vulnerable, Antonio Guterres calls for, among other things, enhanced social protection and early warning, stronger national met services, “passive cooling” (greening, climate-sensitive urban design, reflective surfaces, smart buildings), action plans for heat health, public education, finance, and “preparedness for early, locally-led humanitarian responses to severe heatwaves”.
A child sits in a tub of cold water to help him cope with scorching heat in Syria’s Al-Hamra camp in Idlib province. The photo is among those illustrating a new UN report highlighting the dangers generated by extreme heat. (Photo: OCHA/Bilal Al-Hammoud)