The United Nations and the Red Cross warned on Monday that within a few decades, heatwaves would become so extreme in some parts of the world that human life will become unsustainable.
According to the organization, heatwaves in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, and south and southwest Asia are expected to “beyond human physiological and societal boundaries” and result in “large-scale suffering and loss of life.”
In a joint assessment, they cautioned that this year’s heatwave disasters in places like Pakistan and Somalia portend deadlier, more frequent, and more severe heat-related humanitarian problems in the future.
In preparation of the UN’s COP27 climate change meeting in Egypt next month, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) released the report.
They listed measures that could lessen the worst effects of high 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.”
It warned that the impact of this would be “large-scale suffering and loss of life, population movements and further entrenched inequality.”
The combined effects of ageing, warming and urbanisation would cause a significant increase in the number of at-risk people in developing countries in the coming decades.
“Projected future death rates from extreme heat are staggeringly high — comparable in magnitude by the end of the century to all cancers or all infectious diseases — and staggeringly unequal,” the report said.
Agricultural workers, children, the elderly and pregnant and breastfeeding women are at higher risk of illness and death, the report claimed.
“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.”
At COP27, IFRC Secretary-General Jagan Chapagain urged nations to spend money on climate change adaptation and mitigation in the most vulnerable areas.
In order to lessen the effects of intense heatwaves, OCHA and the IFRC proposed five primary actions, including early information to assist people and authorities react in time and finding innovative ways to finance local-level action.
Additionally, they included testing additional “thermally-appropriate” emergency shelters and “cooling centers” and influencing towns to adjust their development plans to accommodate for potential effects of excessive heat.
