“The good news is that we can save lives and limit their impact,” said the UN chief. (File)
United Nations:
Humanity is suffering from an “epidemic of extreme heat”, warned UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday, calling for action to limit the impacts of heat waves intensified by climate change.
“Billions of people face an epidemic of extreme heat – withering under increasingly deadly heatwaves, with temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius across the world,” he said. “It’s 122 degrees Fahrenheit. And halfway to boiling.”
According to the European Copernicus network, July 21, 22 and 23 were the three hottest days ever recorded around the world, with July 22 holding the absolute record of 17.16 degrees Celsius (62.9 degrees Fahrenheit). ).
Guterres repeated his appeal to humanity to combat its “addiction” to fossil fuels.
“Today, our focus is on the impact of extreme heat. But let’s not forget that there are many other devastating symptoms of the climate crisis: increasingly violent hurricanes. Floods. Droughts. Wildfires. Rising sea levels. And the list goes on. ,” he said.
“To face all these symptoms, we need to fight the disease. And the disease is the madness of incinerating our only home. The disease is addiction to fossil fuels. The disease is climate inaction”, he stressed, appealing in particular to the G20 countries to act.
Although 2023 was the hottest year on record and 2024 could set a new record, temperatures well above 40ºC (104ºF) are increasingly common.
In the space of a year, the 50ºC threshold was even exceeded in at least 10 places, from Death Valley in the United States (53.9ºC on July 7) to Agadir in Morocco, and also in China and India.
Intense heat, often less visible than other devastating impacts of climate change such as storms or floods, is nevertheless more deadly.
This “silent killer” is responsible for around 489,000 deaths per year between 2000 and 2019, compared to 16,000 deaths per year caused by cyclones, according to the UN “Call to Action” document published on Thursday.
Exposed workers
Extremely high temperatures also have an economic impact, with the UN estimating that economic losses from heat stress at work will reach US$2.4 billion by 2030.
According to an International Labor Organization report published Thursday, more than 70 percent of workers were exposed to excessive heat in 2020, 8.8 percent more than in 2000.
“The good news is that we can save lives and limit their impact,” Guterres said on Thursday.
The UN has called on the global community to act first to protect “the most vulnerable” – including young children, the elderly and also the poorest of humanity.
In this context, early warning systems must include extreme heat, alerting populations to the arrival of heat waves and informing them of the precautions to take, says the document.
The call to action also recommends “increasing equitable access and scaling up low-carbon cooling.”
This would involve investing in passive cooling systems – which include climate-sensitive urban design measures, reflective surfaces and natural cooling systems – and phasing out climate-warming gases that are used in many cooling systems.
(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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