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Extreme Heat Putting Pregnant Women, Newborns at Risk: UN Climate Chief

A Wellcome survey of 1,000 health workers found 73% saw heat-related pregnancy complications rise over five years, with risks extending to newborns.

  • A major Plan International study found that climate disasters are increasing risks of child marriage, teenage pregnancy, and violence against girls across more than 50 countries.
  • When floods leave families destitute, economic hardship forces them to marry off girls. Galgalo from Kenya said, "My father has no livestock to sell and take me to college, that's how I accepted to be married off."
  • Research found 36 per cent of girls reported increased marriage after disasters, while one in 10 experienced unintended pregnancy; participants described girls as young as 12 and 13 becoming pregnant in Peru and Zimbabwe.
  • More than one-quarter of girls witnessed increased violence following climate events. Plan International CEO Reena Ghelani said, "The climate crisis is not a distant threat" and is already disrupting education and health access.
  • Only 0.5% of multilateral climate finance supports health despite escalating climate shocks. With record-breaking Nino impacts this year, risks for girls facing poverty are expected to intensify as climate disasters become more frequent.
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The report is based on a survey of 5,000 girls and young people aged 15-24 in Peru, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Bangladesh. "Climate catastrophes have dramatic consequences for the life and future of girls," Plan International said in a statement, and urged the international community to make the protection of children at the heart of the response to climate change. More than a third (36%) of young women and adolescents consulted "observed that…

·Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
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Lean Left

They are married earlier on average after climate disasters, become pregnant earlier and experience more violence: For girls in the Global South, the climate crisis has particularly serious consequences.

·Hamburg, Germany
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Bloomberg broke the news in New York, United States on Sunday, October 4, 2026.
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