Heat should make regions uninhabitable in the coming decades, warn entities

Entire regions of the world will become uninhabitable in the coming decades due to the heat waves, which will become more frequent and intense, warned the UN (United Nations) and the Red Cross this Monday (10).

The United Nations and the IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies) urged, in a joint report on extreme heat phenomena, to prepare for future heat waves and thus avoid a large number of deaths.

Less than a month before COP27 (27th United Nations Conference on Climate Change), which will be held in Egypt in November, the UN and the IFRC recalled that, due to the current evolution of the climate, “heat waves can reach and surpass the physiological and social limits” of humans in the coming decades, especially in regions such as the Sahel–between the Sahara Desert and the Sudanese savannah–and South and Southwest Asia.

According to the document, there are limits beyond which humans exposed to extreme heat and humidity cannot survive and beyond which societies cannot adapt.

These conditions will lead to “large-scale suffering and loss of human life, population movements and worsening inequalities”, the organizations warned.

According to the document, in almost all territories where statistics are available, heat waves are the deadliest climate hazard.

Every year, thousands of people die from heat waves, a phenomenon that will become increasingly deadly as climate change increases, according to Martin Griffiths, head of OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs). , and Jagan Chapagain, Secretary General of the IFRC.

Heat waves caused some of the deadliest catastrophes on record.

The report recalls that the heat wave that hit Europe in 2003 left more than 70,000 dead and that the heat wave that Russia experienced in 2010 killed more than 55,000 people.

According to the document, experts expect death rates linked to extreme heat to be very high, “comparable in magnitude to all cancers by the end of the century.”

“Silent assassin”

This year, entire regions and countries in North Africa, Australia, Europe, South Asia and the Middle East, as well as China and the western United States, experienced record temperatures.

The report claims that extreme heat is a “silent killer” whose effects will amplify, creating immense challenges for the planet’s sustainable development and causing new humanitarian needs.

“The humanitarian system does not have the resources to resolve a crisis of this magnitude on its own. We already lack the funds and resources to respond to some of the worst humanitarian crises this year,” Griffiths said during the press conference to present the document.

The organizations called for major investments, urgent and sustained over time, to mitigate the impact of climate change and contribute to the long-term adaptation of populations in the most vulnerable countries.

According to a study cited in the report, the number of poor people living in extreme heat in urban areas will increase by 700% by 2050, especially in West Africa and Southeast Asia.

The United Nations and the Red Cross insisted on the importance of recognizing the limits of adapting to extreme heat.

Some measures, such as increased air-conditioning systems, are expensive, energy-intensive and not viable in the long term because they themselves contribute to climate change.

If greenhouse gas emissions are not “aggressively” reduced, the planet will face “extreme heat levels unimaginable today”, the two organizations warned.