83 per cent of 5-year-olds will be exposed to ‘unprecedented' extreme heat in their lifetime
Around 100 million of the estimated 120 million children born in 2020 face 'unprecedented' exposure to extreme heat under the world's current climate plans.
That's according to a new report from international charity Save the Children, which shows the huge difference that keeping to the globally-agreed target of
1.5°C
warming above pre-industrial levels could make.
Almost
ten years
after the Paris Agreement enshrined this goal, countries' climate policies put us on track for 2.7°C heating. Since even these commitments aren't being met, the world is currently on course for around
3.1°C
of warming.
'Across the world, children are forced to bear the brunt of a crisis they are not responsible for,' says Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children International. '
Dangerous heat
that puts their health and learning at risk;
cyclones
that batter their homes and schools; creeping
droughts
that shrivel up crops and shrink what's on their plates.
Related
From Finland to the UK, European countries are slashing aid. What does it mean for climate funds?
'Amid this daily drumbeat of disasters, children plead with us not to switch off.'
Released by the charity and researchers at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) today,
the report
finds that meeting 1.5°C would reduce the number of today's five-year-olds impacted by extreme heat to 62 million - a difference of 38 million. That's almost a third of five-year-olds.
How will global heating impact children?
Heatwaves disproportionately impact young children's health, by increasing their risks of dehydration, respiratory illnesses, and ultimately mortality.
Extreme heat also disrupts access to food and clean water and forces schools to close - as it did for a fortnight in
South Sudan
earlier this year, after some students collapsed at their desks.
Under current national climate policy pledges - which would see a 2.7°C temperature rise by 2100 - even adults born in 1960 will encounter unprecedented heatwave exposure during their lifetime in the Americas, Africa, the Middle East, and Australia.
Children born in all regions of the world in 2020 face unprecedented exposure to
heatwaves
.
Researchers defined 'unprecedented' exposure as experiencing climate extremes that someone would have less than a 1 in 10,000 chance of experiencing during their life in a world without human-induced climate change.
Meeting the 1.5°C target would protect millions of children born in 2020 from the severest impacts of other climate-related disasters too, including crop failures, floods, tropical cyclones, droughts and wildfires.
Related
'Society is at a crossroads': 5 deep changes experts say will turn us away from the climate abyss
What do children say about the climate crisis?
16-year-old Denise (not her real name) and her family were forced from their home in
Brazil
last year when the country's worst floods in 80 years struck, devastating their community.
Their home, including Denise's bedroom, was severely damaged, and she was out of school for nearly two months.
'It really affected me mentally, and academically too,' Denise says. 'Catching up on all my grades to pass secondary school was really tough, especially at a state school. It massively impacted my schoolwork. My grades dropped significantly after the floods.'
ADVERTISEMENT
Inevitably, it is children affected by inequality and those in lower- and middle-income countries who are worst affected by climate extremes. Their families are less able to cope with climate shocks, and they are already at greater risk from vector and waterborne diseases, hunger and malnutrition.
Haruka, also 16, is from
Vanuatu
, which recently experienced three of the most severe types of cyclone in just a year.
'Cyclones are scary. For me, they continue to destroy my home, every year - we don't even bother trying to fix the ceiling anymore,' she says.
'The past few years, I've seen ceaseless destruction and constant rebuilding. This seemingly never-ending cycle has become our reality, and most people aren't even aware that it's not just nature doing its thing, but it's us bearing the brunt of a crisis that we did not cause.'
ADVERTISEMENT
Around five million children born in 2020 would be spared unprecedented lifetime exposure to tropical cyclones, the report finds, if the world manages to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C rather than 2.7°C.
A similar number would avoid unprecedented lifetime exposure to river floods.
Related
From living in tents to missing school, here's why climate change is a 'child rights crisis'
Extreme weather is turning many into climate migrants: How does it feel to face leaving home?
How can policy-makers put children at the heart of climate action?
'This new research shows there is still hope, but only if we act urgently and ambitiously to rapidly limit warming temperatures to 1.5°C, and truly put
children
front and centre of our response to climate change at every level,' says Ingersen.
Fundamentally, the charity is calling for the rapid phase-out of fossil fuels, with high-income and historically high-emitting countries leading the way.
ADVERTISEMENT
It also wants to see a gear-change in the provision of
adaptation
and
loss and damage
funding, with new climate finance that prioritises child-critical services - such as health and nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), education, child protection, and social protection.
Children must be centred in international climate plans, Save the Children adds, including in new
Nationally Determined Contributions
(NDCs) which were due to be submitted this year.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Local France
2 hours ago
- Local France
France adopts law upholding ban on controversial insecticide
The legislation has been at the heart of a major debate in France and sparked a student-initiated petition that was wildly successful. READ MORE: What is France's Loi Duplomb and why are people protesting about it? Critics of the bill, adopted in July in a fractured lower house of parliament, say it was rushed through without proper debate. The law was published in the government's official journal on Tuesday after the Constitutional Council, the country's highest court, struck down the contested provision about the reintroduction of acetamiprid. The court said that the insecticides known as neonicotinoids posed "risks to human health" and were unconstitutional as they undermined the right to live in a balanced and healthy environment as guaranteed in the country's environmental charter. Banned in France since 2018, acetamiprid is legal in the European Union and proponents say French farmers need it to help them compete with their European counterparts. Advertisement The main farmers' union has railed against the court ruling. Supporters of the petition said their frustration with the legislation went beyond environmental concerns. Commentators have said it may be a sign of exasperation with deadlock in a hung parliament and a desire to have a greater say in political matters. After the ruling, Macron had said he intended to quickly enact the law and rejected further parliamentary debate. The controversial legislation has been dubbed the Duplomb law, after its author, Laurent Duplomb, a senator for the right-wing Les Republicains party. French Health Minister Yannick Neuder has called for a European reassessment of the impact of acetamiprid on human health.
Euronews
4 hours ago
- Euronews
Has the 1.5°C target set out in the Paris Agreement been breached?
Looking at the many heatwaves crippling large parts of Europe during the first summer weeks, the findings of July's climate bulletin published by the European Union's climate service Copernicus will not come as a surprise. Last month was the fourth-warmest July on record in Europe, with average temperatures reaching 21.12°C, 1.30°C above the 1991-2020 average for July. "There were some regional contrasts, as is often the case in Europe," Julien Nicolas, Senior Scientist at Copernicus, told Euronews. The month started extremely hot in most of Europe, particularly the western part. "As the month progressed, temperatures cooled and conditions became wetter in the western and central parts of Europe." The anomalies which stood out in July were the much-above-average temperatures recorded in Scandinavia, where temperatures reached 30°C for several weeks. "That's quite significant, and is not the weather we would expect to persist at these latitudes." Meanwhile, in Turkey, the temperature reached 50°C. Long-term warming trend One of the report's key findings noted that, globally, July 2025 was 1.25°C above the estimated 1850-1900 average used to define the pre-industrial level. In 21 of the past 25 months, the average global temperature was 1.5°C or more above this level. This begs the question: Does this mean the landmark Paris Agreement, which is ratified by all EU member states and aims to limit the long-term average temperature increase to 1.5°C above the pre-industrial level, has failed? "That's a debated question at the moment," Nicolas said. "I think one must remember that the Paris agreement refers to a long-term average temperature of 1.5°C that shouldn't be exceeded to avoid the most catastrophic and irreversible consequences of climate change. What we have seen over the past couple of years are temporary breaches of this limit." He explained that generally, the long-term average will only be considered exceeded when the level has been breached over a 20-year average—the length of time that is considered apt to characterise the climate and smooth out the natural fluctuation of the global temperature. "Once we have reached this 20-year average of global temperatures rising above the 1.5°C, that's when we can consider that we have exceeded the limit of the Paris Agreement," Nicolas added. The recent model predictions show that this limit might be reached as soon as 2030. "This is just a few years away. But we haven't reached it yet." Copernicus scientists noted that the recent streak of global temperature records is over—for now. There will be periods of "cooling", as in July 2025, when the average global temperature was "just" 1.25°C above the estimated 1850-1900 average. This is due to natural fluctuations in the climate. "But that comes on top of the long-term warming trend that is directly related to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere." In other words, climate change hasn't stopped. Catastrophic effects To this point, climate scientists regularly point to the effects of a warming world that are being witnessed in all corners of Europe. In July, fatal flash flooding hit parts of Romania, while an extreme heatwave claimed lives on Italy's beaches. "One thing to remember is that these extreme climate events didn't start two years ago; we have seen them happening for many years," said Nicolas. "We have seen the consequences of climate change. This also includes the melting of glaciers and sea level rise. But the fact that global average temperatures reached record levels makes these extreme climate events more likely." He emphasised that this long-term warming trend and its catastrophic implications won't stop anytime soon, as long as greenhouse gases continue to accumulate in the atmosphere. For this reason, climate scientists continue to press for measures to counter this trend. "We see the urgency of continuing climate actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions globally. And that clearly is something that shouldn't stop," Nicolas said. This is true even if the 1.5°C limit set by the Paris Climate Agreement is exceeded. "We must continue doing everything we can to cut greenhouse gas emissions, because as we often say, every fraction of a degree matters." It is in this context that various civil society organisations and academia have voiced concern for and opposition to the European Commission proposing to allow international carbon offsets to help meet the EU's 2040 climate targets. This move raised concerns about outsourcing the emission reduction actions, which critics say effectively waters down climate ambitions.
Euronews
a day ago
- Euronews
Space Race 2.0? US speeding plans to build nuclear reactor on the Moon
The United States is fast-tracking plans to build a nuclear reactor on the Moon in response to China and Russia's growing activity in space. US media reported last week that Sean Duffy, NASA's interim administrator and US transportation secretary, said the country could complete the project as early as 2030. It will also be much stronger than anticipated; while previous designs assumed the nuclear reactor would have around 40 kilowatt power, it's now expected to 100 kW. This dramatic increase in power is expected to provide stable power for future bases on the Moon. The facility will be built as part of the international Artemis programme, overseen by NASA, which aims to send people to the Moon and prepare for future expeditions to Mars. In addition to the nuclear reactor itself, a full supporting infrastructure – from transmission networks to energy storage – will be extremely important. The project's acceleration heralds a new era of global competition beyond Earth. Is the 2030 deadline possible? According to experts, the 2030 deadline is ambitious but technically possible. NASA and the US Department of Energy are now working to develop a fission surface power system to provide at least 40 kW of power, which NASA said would be enough to run 30 households for 10 years. Reactors have to operate reliably under extreme conditions: temperature fluctuations from daytime heat to nighttime frosts as low as -200° Celsius, no atmosphere, and limited cooling. Reactors must therefore be sealed, safe, and able to manage heat in low pressure and lower gravity conditions. In addition, rocket launches carry the risk of failure. The reactor would be sent in an "unactivated" state to minimise the risk of contamination in the event of a catastrophe. Competition to establish on the Moon Under the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, no one can claim territory on the Moon. But for technical reasons, security zones around the reactor could effectively block other countries' access to strategic areas. "The first country to [place a reactor on the Moon] could potentially declare a keep-out zone which would significantly inhibit the United States from establishing a planned Artemis presence if not there first," Duffy said. China is already testing its Lanyue lunar lander, which it expects to carry humans to the Moon by 2030. Working with Russia, China plans to build an International Lunar Research Station by 2035, possibly with its own nuclear plant on the Moon. Technological partnership with Europe European activity in lunar exploration is not limited to support for the Artemis programme. European countries are pursuing their own advanced projects that can not only inspire US ventures, but often feed directly into them. The Italian project SELENE (Lunar Energy Systems with Nuclear Energy) involves the construction of a "Moon Energy Hub," a stable energy source on the Moon based on small energy sources known as surface nuclear reactors. The Italian Space Agency (ASI) is also working with NASA to develop a module that could serve as a place of refuge for astronauts on the Moon. The European Space Agency (ESA) is implementing the Moonlight programme to create a constellation of five satellites orbiting the Moon, four for navigation and one for communication. The initiative, supported by Italy and the United Kingdom, expects to support more than 400 lunar missions over the next 20 years. Spanish technology company GMV developed the LUPIN system, which allows precise navigation on the Moon using satellite signals – similar to GPS but adapted to lunar conditions. Tests were carried out in Fuerteventura, an island off the coast of North Africa that has a landscape resembling the lunar surface. The company Airbus is working with the ESA on a transport vehicle capable of carrying cargo to the International Space Station. In parallel, scientists are developing the EL3 (European Large Logistic Lander), a modular lander to deliver payloads and samples to the lunar surface in support of European exploration autonomy. The LUNA centre, a joint initiative between the ESA and Germany's aerospace centre, is under construction in Cologne. It is a 700-metre hall that replicates the Moon's surface, with a layer of rock and lighting systems that mimic the day and night cycle. It is used to train astronauts and test robots, human-machine interaction, energy systems, and to simulate surface operations. Return to the Moon The space race is entering a new phase in which energy independence beyond Earth plays a key role. The lunar reactor is becoming not only an engineering project, but also a tool of strategic competition, determining technological and political superiority. By 2030, we may witness not only the return of humans to the Moon, but also the establishment of the first permanent energy installations, which will become the foundation for a long-term human presence in space. At the same time, questions of law, security and international cooperation arise. Although the Outer Space Treaty prohibits the "appropriation" of this natural satellite of the Earth, the practice of security zones may introduce a new form of space geopolitics. Europe, with its wide range of projects, can become not only a partner but also an independent player in this process, combining technological innovation with an active role in shaping the standards of lunar exploration. If these plans are realised, the future landscape of the Moon could look more like an industrial technology park than a quiet, untouched space desert. This is the beginning of an era in which the question is not whether bases will be established on the Moon, but under what rules and who will set them.
