Global warming is a “unique threat” to children’s health, warns UNICEF

Global warming is worsening the living conditions of hundreds of millions of children around the world, warns a UNICEF report published Wednesday, August 14, a “unique threat” to their health. The risk of infant mortality is increased, as is low birth weight, but also neurodevelopmental disorders.

Nearly half a billion children experience twice as many heat waves as their grandparents did in their youth. In Paraguay, for example, the report counts 71 days per year above 35 degrees in 2024 compared to 36 in the 1960s. Children in West and Central Africa (Mali, Niger and Senegal) are the most frequently affected by high temperatures: nearly 200 days per year.

As for France: 12.5 million children are twice as exposed to heat waves as they were sixty years ago, particularly in the south-eastern quarter of the country. The UNICEF report also points out that global warming increases the spread of infectious diseases, including dengue fever and malaria, particularly in the poorest countries.