Extreme heat is putting pregnant women and newborns at increasing risk, the United Nations (UN) has warned, as rising global temperatures are increasingly linked to serious complications during pregnancy and childbirth.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell is expected to raise the alarm at the pre-COP31 summit in Nadi, Fiji, on Monday, citing new research showing the growing health impact of extreme heat on mothers and babies.
According to the survey, more than two-thirds of health professionals across five continents reported seeing complications linked to intense heat over the past five years.
“Rising temperatures mean rising danger in pregnancy,” Stiell is expected to tell delegates.
He is also expected to highlight links between climate-driven extreme heat during pregnancy and premature birth, stillbirth, low birth weight and maternal complications.
The survey of 1,000 midwives and doctors in the United Kingdom, Australia, India, Brazil and Zimbabwe was commissioned by the Wellcome charitable foundation.
Nearly all respondents said they had cared for mothers or babies affected by extreme heat. About one-third reported cases involving low birth weight or restricted growth, feeding difficulties, dehydration and heat-related illnesses that they believed were caused by extreme heat.
Stiell is expected to describe the situation as a growing fault line in the global climate crisis, warning that worsening heat could deepen climate-related inequality and suffering.
Wellcome chairwoman and former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said mothers and babies were facing increasing risks from climate change.
“Extreme heat is an invisible killer, but pregnant women must not be invisible,” Gillard said, urging leaders to act on the available evidence and solutions.
The warning comes as climate scientists report that climate change is intensifying extreme weather events and contributing to more frequent heat records.
According to AFP analysis of data from the European Union’s Copernicus climate observatory, about 33 countries across western Europe, the Sahel and Central America recorded their hottest July since records began this year.
The pre-COP31 summit in Fiji and Tuvalu is being used by Pacific leaders to highlight the impact of climate change on communities on the frontline of rising temperatures and extreme weather.
The meeting comes ahead of COP31, the UN-backed global climate summit scheduled to take place in Turkey next month.
