UN Climate chief warns of dangers of extreme heat during pregnancy

Extreme heat is causing “increased danger during pregnancy”, UN Climate chief Simon Stiell said on Monday in a speech given at a pre-COP31 meeting in Fiji. “With rising temperatures comes increased danger during pregnancy,” Simon Stiell said at the launch of the October 5-8 preparatory meeting for the international climate conference, COP31, which takes place in November in Antalya, Turkey.

“Extreme heat waves linked to climate change during pregnancy are increasingly associated with premature births, stillbirths, low birth weight and maternal complications,” he continued. The risks of heat, and by extension global warming, for pregnancy are increasingly better documented, even if we still ask many questions about the physiological mechanisms that explain them.

A large study, published in 2024 in the journal Nature Medicine, gives a general idea of ​​the state of knowledge: high temperatures increase multiple risks, ranging from premature births to newborn death including congenital malformations.

According to a survey Mr. Stiell referenced in his speech, which surveyed maternal health professionals in five countries around the world (including Australia, the United Kingdom and Brazil), 73% of them reported an increase in heat-related cases or complications linked to extreme heat waves affecting pregnant women in the last five years.

“Pregnancy should be a period of hope,” he insisted on Monday. But “for millions of people, it becomes a source of anxiety”, to the extent that “extreme heat waves and other climate-related disasters strain health systems and threaten essential resources such as food, water and electricity”, he noted on Monday.

“Climate change should under no circumstances be invoked to justify a reduction in the safety of pregnancies and childbirth,” also affirmed Simon Stiell. For Pacific nations, the meeting in Fiji is an opportunity to focus the global community's attention on the devastating effects of climate change in the region.