climate change
UN and Red Cross call for measures against heat waves
This summer, the Po almost dried up in northern Italy. photo
© Luigi Navarra/AP/dpa
Extreme heat waves are becoming more common. Effective forecasting and warning systems are becoming essential for survival, according to a report.
According to the United Nations, communities around the world must prepare for increasingly frequent heat waves. Extreme heat waves, which used to occur once every 50 years without man-made global warming, are now five times as likely, according to a report by the UN Emergency Relief Office (OCHA) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) on Monday Geneva.
By the end of this century, as many people could die from the effects of high temperatures as from infectious diseases or cancer, said the report, which called for global action.
“The data clearly predict a bleak future,” IFRC Secretary General Jagan Chapagain said at a news conference. Even today, heat leads to migration, disease, hunger, poverty and death. But unlike sudden natural disasters, societies could prepare for heat.
The UN and the Red Cross called for the development of forecasting and warning systems in order to make local decisions before heat waves begin. This includes, for example, setting up cool residential buildings in cities to protect pregnant and breastfeeding women, small children and the elderly. According to the report, precautions should also be taken in clinics and working hours for outdoor activities adjusted. This requires comprehensive action plans, according to the report, which highlighted the Indian city of Ahmedabad as an example. A heat action plan is in place there that prevents more than 1,100 deaths a year.
OCHA boss Martin Griffiths called on industrialized countries to shoulder the costs of these protective measures. “Poorer countries that aren’t responsible for these excruciating heat waves don’t have those resources,” he said a month before the world climate conference in Egypt.
Press release report on heatwaves