UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell has warned that extreme heat is emerging as a potentially fatal threat to pregnant women, newborns and maternal healthcare systems as climate change intensifies.
Speaking on Monday at the Birthright event in Suva, Fiji, Stiell said rising temperatures were increasingly linked to pregnancy complications, premature birth, stillbirth and low birth weight.
The UN climate chief warned that pregnancy and childbirth were becoming a new faultline in the global climate crisis.
“The picture is clear and very disturbing: as extreme heat worsens, pregnancy and birth are now a new faultline in the global climate crisis, and one which is potentially fatal,” the UN official said.
The remarks followed a new survey commissioned by Wellcome of maternal health professionals across five countries on five continents.
The survey highlighted growing concern over the impact of extreme heat on maternal, fetal and newborn health.
According to the survey cited in the speech, 73 per cent of healthcare professionals reported that heat-linked cases or complications had increased over the past five years.
It also found that 81 per cent of respondents were either concerned or very concerned that extreme heat would increasingly put maternal, fetal and newborn health at risk without greater action.
Nearly all respondents — 98 per cent — said they had cared for a pregnant woman whose health they considered to have been affected by extreme heat, while 99 per cent reported caring for a baby affected by extreme heat.
Stiell said the figures represented more than statistics, pointing to the human consequences of extreme heat on expectant mothers, newborns, families and healthcare workers.
“Someone working outdoors, living in unregulated housing, travelling far to a clinic, or relying on facilities without water, power or cooling, cannot be protected by advice alone.
“‘Staying cool’ is simply not an option when there is no cool place to go,” he said.
The UN official warned that climate change could deepen existing inequalities in access to safe pregnancy and childbirth, particularly for women living in vulnerable communities and countries that had contributed relatively little to global warming.
“A safe birth is already too often shaped by geography, income and access to care. Without action, extreme heat will widen that injustice,” he said.
Stiell called for maternal and newborn health to be integrated into climate adaptation, heat and health planning.
He stressed that issues excluded from policy plans were often left without adequate funding, monitoring or protection.
“What is not named in a plan is too often not funded, not measured and not protected,” the UN climate official said.
He identified three priorities: integrating pregnancy and newborn care into climate adaptation and heat-health plans; converting evidence into practical protection; and improving data collection and analysis to identify growing risks and measure which interventions work.
The measures, according to him, should include resilient health facilities, reliable water and electricity, trained health workers, clearer guidance, heat alerts and health systems prepared before extreme heat emergencies occur.
The UN official also called for stronger data to show where climate-related maternal and newborn health risks were increasing, which communities were most exposed and where finance and technology were needed.
“Harm that is not counted is too easily ignored,” he said.
He called for the delivery of the tripling of adaptation finance agreed at COP30 in Brazil and urged nations and the wider financial system to work toward mobilising 1.3 trillion dollars annually for developing countries.
The funds, he said, were needed to strengthen systemic resilience and accelerate the transition to clean, affordable and secure energy on which effective health systems depend.
The climate expert welcomed the Birthright Campaign by Wellcome and work by the World Health Organisation on maternal health and climate change, saying both could help address gaps in protection.
He also pointed to the Belém Gender Action Plan and Belém Adaptation Indicators as mechanisms that could strengthen gender-responsive climate action, data collection, finance, participation and tracking of progress toward climate-resilient health services.
The UN climate change executive secretary said the issue should be treated as a matter of basic human protection rather than an unavoidable consequence of climate change.
“A changing climate must never be accepted as a reason pregnancy and birth become less safe.
“A newborn’s healthy start must never depend on a family’s ability to escape the heat,” he said.
The UN chief urged governments and other stakeholders to act before climate impacts become entrenched in maternity wards and communities.
