83% of Today’s 5-Year-Olds Will Face 'Unprecedented' Extreme Heat iNdEx
Approximately 100 million out of an estimated 120 million children born in 2020 could experience "unparalleled" levels of intense heat due to the global warming projections currently in place.
That’s according to a new report from international charity Save the Children, which shows the huge difference that keeping to the globally-agreed target of 1.5°C increases beyond pre-industrial levels might cause.
Almost ten years after the Paris Agreement enshrined this goal, countries' climate policies put us on track for 2.7°C heating. Since even these commitments aren’t being met, the world is currently on course for around 3.1°C of warming.
"Children around the globe are unfairly bearing the burden of a crisis they did not cause," states Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children International. Dangerous heat that puts their health and learning at risk; cyclones battering their homes and schools; insidiously advancing droughts that shrivel up crops and shrink what’s on their plates.
In the midst of this constant stream of calamities, children implore us not to tune out.
Launched by the charitable organization and experts from Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) today, the report determines that achieving 1.5°C would decrease the number of current five-year-olds exposed to extreme heat to 62 million, which is a reduction of 38 million individuals. This represents nearly one-third of all five-year-olds.
What effects will global warming have on children?
Heatwaves have an outsized effect on the health of young children, raising their risk of dehydration, respiratory diseases, and even death.
Intense heat also hampers availability of food and clean water and leads to school closures – as was the case for two weeks. South Sudan Earlier this year, following several instances of students collapsing at their desks.
Based on present national climate commitments, which project a global temperature increase of around 2.7°C by the year 2100, individuals born as early as 1960 can expect to experience previously unseen levels of heatwaves throughout their lifetimes across regions such as the Americas, Africa, the Middle East, and Australia.
Children born across every part of the globe in 2020 encounter unparalleled levels of exposure. heatwaves .
Scientists described "unprecedented" exposure as encountering extreme weather conditions that an individual would likely face with less than a one-in-ten-thousand probability over their lifetime in a scenario where human-caused climate change did not occur.
Achieving the 1.5°C objective would safeguard millions of children born in 2020 from the most severe effects of various climate-induced calamities such as crop failures, flooding, tropical storms, droughts, and wildfires.
How do kids express their views on the climate crisis?
A 16-year-old named Denise (whose real name has been withheld for privacy reasons) along with her family was compelled to leave their residence. Brazil Last year, when the nation experienced its most severe flooding in eight decades, their community was ravaged.
Their house, with Denise’s bedroom included, suffered extensive damage, keeping her away from school for almost two months.
It had a significant impact on both my mental well-being and academic performance," Denise explains. "Getting back on track with all my grades to complete secondary school was extremely challenging, particularly since I attended a public institution. This greatly influenced my studies; my scores plummeted considerably following the floods.
It is inevitably the children impacted by inequality and those residing in low- and middle-income nations who suffer most from extreme weather events. These families have a reduced capacity to handle climatic disruptions, and they face an increased threat of illnesses spread through vectors and contaminated water, as well as suffering from food shortages and malnourishment.
Haruka, also 16, is from Vanuatu , which has recently faced three of the most intense forms of cyclones within a single year.
“Cyclones are scary. For me, they continue to destroy my home, every year - we don't even bother trying to fix the ceiling anymore,” she says.
“The past few years, I've seen ceaseless destruction and constant rebuilding. This seemingly never-ending cycle has become our reality, and most people aren't even aware that it's not just nature doing its thing, but it's us bearing the brunt of a crisis that we did not cause.”
Around five million children born in 2020 would be spared unprecedented lifetime exposure to tropical cyclones, the report finds, if the world manages to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C rather than 2.7°C.
A comparable figure would steer clear of unparalleled lifelong exposure to river flooding.
In what ways can policymakers make children central to their climate initiatives?
This latest study indicates that there is still hope, yet it hinges on our immediate and bold actions to swiftly cap temperature increases at 1.5°C, and genuinely prioritize this critical objective. children "At every level, this approach places front and center our response to climate change," according to Ingersen.
Fundamentally, the charity is calling for the rapid phase-out of fossil fuels, with high-income and historically high-emitting countries leading the way.
It also wants to see a gear-change in the provision of adaptation and loss and damage financing, through new climate funds that focus on essential child-related services—like healthcare and nutrition, water supply, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), education, child protection, and social welfare.
Save the Children emphasizes that children should be at the forefront of global climate initiatives, including within newly developed strategies. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) scheduled for submission this year.
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