Extreme heat driven by climate change is becoming a growing danger for pregnant women and newborn babies, and UN climate chief Simon Stiell is set to say so at the pre-COP meeting that opened in Nadi, Fiji, on Monday, 5 October, the news agency AFP reported. The meeting runs until 8 October.
According to AFP, Stiell will say that the risks of pregnancy rise as temperatures rise, and that the links between extreme heat and premature birth, stillbirth, low birth weight and complications for mothers are becoming ever clearer. "The picture is clear and deeply alarming," he will say.
Stiell will also present a new survey by the charity Wellcome of 1,000 midwives and doctors in the United Kingdom, Australia, India, Brazil and Zimbabwe. Almost all said they had treated a mother or newborn who fell ill because of extreme heat. About a third said they had seen low birth weight, stunted growth, feeding problems and dehydration or heat illness that they attributed to extreme heat.
Julia Gillard, Wellcome's chair and a former Australian prime minister, said in a statement: "Extreme heat is a silent killer, but the risk to pregnant women must not be ignored." The evidence and the solutions are in leaders' hands, she said, and they now have to act.
Scientists warn that climate change is making extreme weather more intense and that temperature records are being broken more often. AFP's analysis of data from the EU's Copernicus climate service found that about 33 countries across western Europe, the Sahel and Central America had their hottest July on record this year.
The pre-COP31 meeting, hosted by Fiji and the atoll nation of Tuvalu, prepares for the UN climate summit COP31 in Turkey next month. Pacific leaders see it as a chance to draw the world's attention to people on the front line of climate change.
Prothom Alo's report is based on AFP.
Photo: Instant Vantage / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0) (a man cools off with water during a heat wave)
Source: Prothom Alo
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