The United Nations and the Red Cross warned on Monday that within a few decades, heatwaves will become so extreme in some parts of the world that human life will become unsustainable.
Heatwaves are predicted to “exceed human physiological and social limits” in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, and south and southwest Asia, with extreme events triggering “large-scale suffering and loss of life”, the organizations said.
In a joint report, they cautioned that this year’s heatwave disasters in places like Pakistan and Somalia portend deadlier, more frequent, and more severe heat-related humanitarian emergencies in the future. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) released the report in advance of the UN’s COP27 climate change summit in Egypt next month.
Extreme heatwaves could result in large-scale suffering and loss of life
They listed measures that could lessen the worst effects of extreme heat and stated that quick action was required to prevent potentially reoccurring heat disasters.
“There are clear limits beyond which people exposed to extreme heat and humidity cannot survive,” the report said.
“There are also likely to be levels of extreme heat beyond which societies may find it practically impossible to deliver effective adaptation for all.
“On current trajectories, heatwaves could meet and exceed these physiological and social limits in the coming decades, including in regions such as the Sahel and south and southwest Asia.”
This would result in “large-scale suffering and loss of life, population movements, and further entrenched inequality,” it warned.
Agricultural workers, kids, the elderly, and pregnant and nursing women are at a higher risk of illness and death
In the coming decades, the number of at-risk individuals in developing countries would significantly increase as a result of the effects of aging, global warming, and urbanization combined.
“Projected future death rates from extreme heat are staggeringly high and comparable in magnitude by the end of the century to all cancers or all infectious diseases and staggeringly unequal,” the report said.
According to the report agricultural workers, kids, the elderly, and pregnant and nursing women are at a higher risk of illness and death.
“As the climate crisis goes unchecked, extreme weather events, such as heatwaves and floods, are hitting the most vulnerable people the hardest,” said UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths.
“Nowhere is the impact more brutally felt than in countries already reeling from hunger, conflict, and poverty.”
FRC Secretary-General urged nations to invest in climate change adaptation
At COP27, FRC Secretary-General Jagan Chapagain urged nations to invest in climate change adaptation and mitigation in the most vulnerable areas.
In order to lessen the effects of extreme heatwaves, OCHA and the IFRC proposed five main steps, including early information to help people and authorities react in time and find new ways to finance local-level action.
Additionally, they involved testing more “thermally appropriate” emergency shelters and “cooling centers” and influencing communities to adjust their development planning to account for the potential effects of extreme heat.
(Ambien)
