Pregnant women, children, elderly most hit by climate change - experts

Pregnant women, newborns, children, adolescents and older people are the most affected by health complications due to climate change, experts say.

Extreme heat affects cognitive function and therefore learning for children and adolescents, and increases heart attacks and respiratory complications among older people.

Kenya is one of the most affected by the warming weather, with the Kenya Meteorological Department already indicating all 2024 seasons will be warmer than usual.

A new collection of papers published in the Journal of Global Health say the specific needs of these most-affected groups have largely been neglected in the climate response.

The articles document the available scientific evidence on the health impacts of different climate hazards at key life stages, from heatwaves to air pollution and natural disasters like wildfires and flooding.

Together, they show that climate-related health risks have been crucially underestimated for younger and older people and during pregnancy, with serious, often life-threatening, implications.

“These studies show clearly that climate change is not a distant health threat, and that certain populations are already paying a high price,” said Dr Anshu Banerjee, Director of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing at the World Health Organization.

“While awareness of climate change has increased, actions to safeguard the lives of those at most risk has barely scratched the surface of what’s needed. For climate justice to be achieved, this must be urgently redressed,” Anshu said.

Taking extreme heat as an example, the authors note that preterm births – the leading cause of childhood deaths – spike during heatwaves, while older people are more likely to suffer heart attacks or respiratory distress. Each additional 1°C in minimum daily temperature over 23.9°C has been shown to increase the risk of infant mortality by as much as 22.4 per cent.

Authored by experts from WHO and academics from around the world, the collection, titled Climate change across the life course, reports a number of specific physical and mental health impacts that arise due to different climate hazards.

They said ambient air pollution increases the likelihood of high blood pressure during pregnancy, low birth weight, preterm birth, and negative impacts on foetal brain and lung development.

It raises risk of respiratory illness among children and older people, who also face greater risks of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and pneumonia.

The papers also noted climate-related natural disasters have significant mental and physical health impacts. 

Flooding and drought reduce access to safe water and food supplies, increasing diarrhoeal diseases and malnutrition. 

The recent flooding in Kenya killed more than 300 people, mostly women and young children, according to the Ministry of Interior.

While climate change affects everyone, climate-related displacements and disruptions have severe consequences for those needing regular access to health services and social support. Infants and older people as well as pregnant women may have particular physiological risk factors, such as difficulties with temperature regulation, vulnerability to dehydration, and/or weaker immune systems.

They also face disproportionate impacts from the indirect effects of climate change and related disasters, like food and water shortages and spikes in vector and water-borne diseases.

“A healthy environment underpins health throughout life, enabling healthy growth and development in childhood and adolescence, healthy pregnancies and healthy ageing,” Anayda Portela, a scientist at WHO and an author of one the papers, said in a statement.

“There is an urgent need to mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to build climate resilience; to take specific actions that protect health at these various life stages, and to ensure continuity of health services for those most at risk when climate disasters occur.”

Last year was the warmest on record in over 170 years, and there were multiple climate emergencies from cyclones, flooding, to extreme heat.