- The speech highlights July 21 -22 as the hottest period ever recorded. Extreme heat, therefore, remains a great threat to be dealt with. It has diverse effects on the economy, pressing down the sustainable development goals, and is even more monstrous in killing humans.
- In this new abnormality, the most severely affected groups are the urban poor, pregnant women, infants, those with disabilities, the ailing ones, and the impoverished since they stay in houses that lack cooling technologies.
- In his statement, he attributes the cause of extreme heat to the constantly rising global consumption and production of fossil fuels.
The world is in a stupendous crisis regarding climate change. The conducive conditions and blissful environment for human and plant survival are in peril. The daily rise of heat waves is one of the life-threatening conditions that have provoked the United Nations Secretary-General to release a press conference on extreme heat on July 25, 2024.
The speech highlights July 21 -22 as the hottest period ever recorded. Extreme heat, therefore, remains a great threat to be dealt with. It has diverse effects on the economy, pressing down the sustainable development goals, and is even more monstrous in killing humans.
In this new abnormality, the most severely affected groups are the urban poor, pregnant women, infants, those with disabilities, the ailing ones, and the impoverished since they stay in houses that lack cooling technologies.
The elderly over 65 and young children are suffering the most from the effects of extreme heat. In less than 20 years, the number of elderly deaths caused by increased heat has risen to 65 per cent.
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According to the UNICEF report, 25 percent of children are now exposed to extreme heat, and the approximation is that the percentage will rise to 100 percent by 2050.
”And the number of urban poor living in extreme heat could rise 700 per cent.
Extreme heat amplifies inequality, inflames food insecurity, and pushes people further into poverty,” he lamented.
Therefore, extreme heat has raised its ugly head. In the spirit of the UN Secretary-General, he is calling on the world to devise a strategy to suppress the diverse heat and other climatic conditions affecting Earth.
In his statement, he attributes the cause of extreme heat to the constantly rising global consumption and production of fossil fuels.
“Countries must phase-out fossil fuels – fast and fairly. They must end new coal projects. The G20 must shift fossil fuel subsidies to renewables and support vulnerable countries and communities. And national climate action plans must show how each country will contribute to the global goals agreed at COP28 to triple the world’s renewables capacity, and end deforestation – by 2030. They must also cut global consumption and production of fossil fuels by thirty percent in the same timeframe,” he said.
His assurance in curbing extreme heat today lies in the massive increase in low-carbon cooling. Expanding passive cooling, paying attention to clean-up cooling technologies, and boosting their efficiency will more fully reclaim the Earth from extreme heat.
