A new global study estimates that 61 percent of children in India, or 145 million people, face an additional month of heat stress annually due to climate change.
The findings, published in the journal Science Advances, demonstrate that climate change has doubled the number of children under nine exposed to dangerous heat stress for at least five months a year—from 59 million to 118 million (representing 50 percent of children).
An international group of researchers, led by scientists from Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium, stated that this is the first analysis to quantitatively determine how heat exposure related to climate change affects different age groups worldwide, both currently and in the near future.
Excessive heat disrupts normal human bodily functions, exacerbates existing diseases, and can lead to serious complications such as heatstroke, dehydration, and organ failure.
The study pays particular attention to humid heat, which is considered more dangerous than dry heat because it hinders the body's ability to sweat for cooling, causing dangerous levels of heat stress.
Globally, the analysis revealed that up to 560 million children aged 0 to 9 years—43 percent of all children in this age group—experience at least an additional month of heat stress per year due to anthropogenic climate change.
Researchers noted that this impact exceeds the figures for any other age group and is nearly three times higher than for 190 million people (30 percent) aged 60–69 who face a similar health threat.
It was added that climate change most intensely increases humid heat in tropical regions and poor countries where the population is younger, and consequently, more children are affected by this phenomenon.
The highest number of children exposed to dangerous heat stress today is observed in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and West Africa, according to the team.
The lead author of the study, Dr. Rosa Pietruosti from Vrije Universiteit Brussel, emphasized: 'Climate change is already causing hundreds of millions of children worldwide to suffer from dangerous heat, creating serious risks to their health. Children in developing countries face (a) disproportionately greater exposure to climate extremes now and in the future, despite contributing the least to historical greenhouse gas emissions.'
Pietruosti also added that 'simultaneously, poverty, inadequate housing, limited access to cooling, and overburdened healthcare systems leave many children with few ways to protect themselves from the heat.'
The number of children affected by an additional month of dangerous heat is expected to rise to 620 million (49 percent of all children) and 650 million (59 percent) under projected global warming scenarios of 1.5 degrees Celsius and 2 degrees Celsius, respectively.
Furthermore, in India, it is projected that 166 million children (74 percent) will face an additional month of heat stress per year with global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius, and this figure could reach 169 million children (96 percent) with warming of 2 degrees Celsius.