UN Climate Chief: Extreme Heat Endangers Pregnancy and Birth

Extreme heat is fast becoming a potentially deadly danger to pregnant women, newborn babies and the health systems that care for them, the UN's top climate official, Simon Stiell, has warned.

 Speaking on Monday at the Birthright event in Suva, Fiji, the Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change said rising temperatures were increasingly being linked to pregnancy complications, premature birth, stillbirth and low birth weight.

 He described pregnancy and childbirth as a new faultline in the global climate crisis.

 

"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 said.

 

Health workers sound the alarm

 

His remarks followed a new survey, commissioned by Wellcome, of maternal health professionals in five countries across five continents. The survey reflected mounting concern about how extreme heat is affecting the health of mothers, unborn babies and newborns.

 

According to the findings cited in his speech:

 

- 73 per cent of health professionals said heat-linked cases or complications had risen over the past five years.

- 81 per cent said they were concerned or very concerned that, without stronger action, extreme heat would place maternal, fetal and newborn health at growing risk.

- 98 per cent said they had cared for a pregnant woman whose health they believed had been affected by extreme heat.

- 99 per cent said they had cared for a baby affected by extreme heat.

 

Stiell said the numbers were about more than data, pointing to the toll extreme heat takes on expectant mothers, newborns, their families and the health workers who look after them.

 

"Someone working outdoors, living in unregulated housing, travelling far to a clinic, or relying on facilities without water, power or cooling, cannot be protected by advice alone.

 

"'Staying cool' is simply not an option when there is no cool place to go," he said.

 

 A widening injustice

 

The UN climate chief warned that climate change could deepen existing inequalities in access to safe pregnancy and childbirth, especially for women in vulnerable communities and in countries that have contributed relatively little to global warming.

 

"A safe birth is already too often shaped by geography, income and access to care. Without action, extreme heat will widen that injustice," he said.

 

Three priorities for action

 

Stiell urged governments to build maternal and newborn health into climate adaptation and heat-health planning, noting that issues left out of policy plans often go without adequate funding, monitoring or protection.

 

"What is not named in a plan is too often not funded, not measured and not protected," he said.

 

He set out three priorities:

 

1. Integrating pregnancy and newborn care into climate adaptation and heat-health plans.

2. Turning evidence into practical protection.

3. Improving data collection and analysis to identify emerging risks and measure which interventions work.

 

According to him, practical protection should include resilient health facilities, reliable water and electricity, trained health workers, clearer guidance, heat alerts, and health systems that are prepared before heat emergencies strike.

 

He also called for stronger data to show where climate-related risks to mothers and newborns are rising, which communities are most exposed, and where finance and technology are needed.

 

"Harm that is not counted is too easily ignored," he said.

 

 Finance for resilience

 

Stiell called for the delivery of the tripling of adaptation finance agreed at COP30 in Brazil, and urged countries and the wider financial system to work towards mobilising 1.3 trillion dollars a year for developing countries.

 

He said the money was needed to strengthen systemic resilience and to speed up the shift to clean, affordable and secure energy, on which effective health systems depend.

 

He welcomed Wellcome's Birthright Campaign and the World Health Organisation's work on maternal health and climate change, saying both could help close gaps in protection.

 

He also cited the Belém Gender Action Plan and the Belém Adaptation Indicators as tools that could strengthen gender-responsive climate action, data collection, finance and participation, and help track progress towards climate-resilient health services.

 

 "A matter of basic human protection"

 

Stiell said the issue must be treated as a matter of basic human protection, not as an unavoidable consequence of a warming world.

 

"A changing climate must never be accepted as a reason pregnancy and birth become less safe.

 

"A newborn's healthy start must never depend on a family's ability to escape the heat," he said.

He urged governments and other stakeholders to act before climate impacts become entrenched in maternity wards and communities.

"This work is urgent, deeply human, and we all share the responsibility to drive it forward together," he said.