THE Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), António Guterres, has announced a global call to action on extreme heat. The call to action brings together diverse expertise and perspectives of various UN entities in a first-of-its-kind joint product, underscoring the multi-sectoral impacts of extreme heat.
Speaking at a recent press briefing monitored by Nigerian Tribune, Guterres said the call has four areas of focus, namely: caring for the vulnerable; protecting workers; boosting the resilience of economies and societies using data and science, and limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C by phasing out fossil fuels and scaling up investment in renewable energy.
Guterres explained that the first is “caring for the most vulnerable. Crippling heat is everywhere – but it doesn’t affect everyone equally. Those most at risk when the mercury soars include the urban poor, pregnant women, people with disabilities, older people, the very young, the sick, the displaced, and the impoverished – who often live in substandard housing without access to cooling.
“Second, we must step up protections for workers. A new report from the International Labour Organisation warns that over 70 per cent of the global workforce – 2.4 billion people – are now at high risk of extreme heat.”
According to the ILO report, workers in Africa, the Arab states and Asia and the Pacific are most often exposed to excessive heat. Specifically, for Africa, the report states that workplace exposures to excessive heat in Africa were above the global average, affecting 92.9 per cent of the workforce.
It added that the African region has the greatest proportion of occupational injuries attributable to excessive heat, accounting for 7.2 percent of all occupational injuries. The report notes that as daily temperatures rise above 34°C – or 93.2°F – labour productivity drops by 50 percent. In addition, heat stress at work is projected to cost the global economy $2.4 trillion by 2030. Up from $280 billion in the mid-1990s.
“We need measures to protect workers, grounded in human rights,” the UN Secretary-General remarked.
“Third, we must massively boost the resilience of economies and societies using data and science,” he said.
For the final focus area, Guteress called for an end to a “disease” he called “addiction to fossil fuels” and “climate inaction.”
Speaking on the subject, Dr Oladapo Okareh an environmental health expert, said there are deaths from extreme heat, but the immediate effect is dehydration. “Internal organs of a person can be affected. The impact of dehydration differs from person to person. The impact is more on the vulnerable – children, elderly and pregnant women.”
He added that extreme heat exacerbates wildfires which impacts on ecosystems which in turn affects food systems. “When food systems are affected food security is affected. What affects food systems affects everyone whether young, old or vulnerable,” Dr Okareh stated.
He noted that farm yields were already reducing because of adverse climatic conditions. Reduced crop yields lead to high food prices.
“The average income earner may be able to afford the food prices, but the poor masses who can’t will be looking for how to take from those who can afford it. This brings about crisis or insecurity. So, you see how this issue has ripple effects,” he said.
Dr Okareh added that extreme heat also affects the volume of water bodies and thereby aquatic life, as well as predisposing humans to certain diseases.
As a solution, he said there are various strategies to apply some of which include planting trees that will absorb carbon dioxide, limiting the use of fossil fuels and changing the technologies that use fossil fuels such as electric cars. “The approach to bring down extreme heat depends on the available resources,” he concluded.
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