NADI, Oct 5 — Extreme heat is putting pregnant mothers and their newborns at increasing risk, United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell will warn today.
Speaking at the “pre-COP” summit in Nadi, Fiji, Stiell will cite a new survey showing more than two thirds of health professionals across five continents had seen complications caused by intense heat in the past five years.
“Rising temperatures mean rising danger in pregnancy,” he is expected to say.
“Climate-driven extreme heat during pregnancy is increasingly linked to premature birth, stillbirth, low birth weight, and maternal complications.”
“The picture is clear and very disturbing: as extreme heat worsens, pregnancy and birth are now a new faultline in the global climate crisis, and one which is potentially fatal,” Stiell will say.
