Without immediate financial assistance to the most vulnerable communities, The world faces a future of “greater and more dangerous heat disasters”.,” Martin Griffiths told journalists in Geneva.
“The humanitarian system is not equipped to handle crises of this scale on its own,” he said. “To avoid future heat wave disasters, we need large and targeted investmentsespecially for the most vulnerable, and we need it now. “
Mr. Griffiths was speaking at the launch of a report jointly published by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
Extremely high risk
Publications, Extreme heat, prepare for future heat wavesdetails recommendations and best practices from developing countries that have introduced measures to support long-term adaptation to climate change.
According to the report, the 2003 heat wave in Europe was responsible for more than 70,000 deaths beyond normal expectations. And the 2010 heatwave in Russia killed more than 55,000 people.
“Almost everywhere where reliable data is available, heatwaves are the deadliest weather-related hazard,” says the joint OCHA and IFRC report, with people most vulnerable and marginalized. marginalized society “being pushed to the front lines” of climate change: casual workers, agricultural workers and migrants.
Also in the group of extreme heat events are the elderly, children, pregnant and lactating women, who are at “a higher risk of illness and death” from higher temperatures.
Wide selections
Although the wealthier nations of the world are better equipped to protect themselves from furnace-like temperatures in the years to come, this is not the case for developing countries, where the overall impacts are not the same. The combination of “warming, aging and urbanization” is expected to be severely affected, consistent with the The sixth assessment report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
“The projected future mortality from extreme heat is staggeringly high – comparable in magnitude to the end of this century, with all cancers or all infectious diseases – and startlingly unequal, with people in poorer countries experiencing a much larger increase,” the report states, citing research of the US National Bureau of Economic Research.
The report cautions that the informal urban sector and other settlements are characterized by camps in particularly high-risk humanitarian environments.
Highlighting projections from the Urban Climate Change Research Network, it also notes that “the number of urban poor living in extreme heat conditions globally will increase by 700% globally by the 2050s ”, with the largest increases expected in West Africa and Southeast Asia.
Equally worrisome is the reminder from OCHA and IFRC that an extreme heat event, once in 50 years in a climate free from human influence, is now nearly twice as likely to occur. 5 times.
Areas where the effects of intolerable temperatures “have appeared” are identified as the Sahel and South and Southwest Asia. According to the report, an increased number of extreme heat events are expected to cause “widespread loss of life, population mobility and growing inequality”.
