UN calls for global action on ‘heat epidemic’

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned of the dire effects that “fossil fuel-charged” climate change has on humanity

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on the global community to take steps to battle what he called an “extreme heat epidemic” affecting millions of people worldwide and weighing heavily on economies. 

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the UN chief noted that rising temperatures are “no longer a one-day phenomenon,” with global meteorological organizations documenting a swift increase in the scale, intensity, and frequency of extreme-heat events. 

He warned that unless all countries unite in an effort to limit the effects of rising temperatures, the situation is “going to get worse.” 

“Extreme heat is the new abnormal,” he said, noting that billions of people around the world are facing extreme temperatures and “wilting under increasingly deadly heat waves.”

Heat is estimated to kill nearly half a million people a year, around 30 times more than tropical cyclones. 

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Guterres proposed an action plan which aims to help nations limit the effects of climate change. Firstly, he urged for boosting protection “for the most vulnerable,” including the urban poor, pregnant women, people with disabilities, older people, and children. He demanded more funding for scaling-up heat health-warning systems and increasing access to low-carbon cooling in order to help these groups.

Secondly, the UN chief called for more protections for workers, including new labor laws and regulations. He warned that heat stress at work is projected to cost the global economy $2.4 trillion by 2030, up from $280 billion in the mid-1990s.

Guterres also called for “boosting the resilience” of economies and societies to climate change through “comprehensive, tailored Heat Action Plans, based on the best science and data.”

He claimed that apart from the direct impact climate change has on people, it affects the planet as a whole, bringing “ever-more fierce hurricanes, floods, droughts, wildfires, rising sea levels,” etc. 

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According to Guterres, all of these phenomena are “symptoms” of the “addiction to fossil fuels,” and climate inaction would only worsen them over time. He called on governments, in particular G20 countries, to deliver national climate action plans focused on phasing-out fossil fuels. 

Guterres’ address came a day after the EU climate change monitor declared July 22 the hottest day on record. According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, the global average surface air temperature on the planet reached 17.15C (62.9F), the highest reading since it started tracking this indicator in 1940.