Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, told the pre-COP31 summit in Nadi, Fiji, on 5 October that extreme heat was putting pregnant mothers and newborns at increasing risk.
He said climate-driven heat during pregnancy is increasingly linked to premature birth, stillbirth, low birth weight and maternal complications. “The picture is clear and very disturbing. As extreme heat worsens, pregnancy and birth are now a new fault line in the global climate crisis, and one which is potentially fatal,” Stiell said.
The warning followed a Wellcome foundation-commissioned survey of 1,000 midwives and doctors in the United Kingdom, Australia, India, Brazil and Zimbabwe.
More than two-thirds of those health professionals said they had witnessed severe outcomes associated with intense heat over the past five years, including premature births, stillbirths, low birth weight and maternal complications.
About one-third said they had directly managed cases involving low birth weight, restricted growth, dehydration and heat-related illness tied to intensifying temperatures.
Almost all respondents reported caring for mothers or infants affected by extreme heat.
The survey was presented at the summit in Nadi.
Julia Gillard, Wellcome’s chair and a former Prime Minister of Australia, commissioned the survey. She said mothers and babies were facing increasing risk because of climate change.
“Extreme heat is an invisible killer, but pregnant women must not be invisible. Leaders have the evidence and solutions they need – now they must act,” Gillard said.
Stiell pointed to data from the European Union’s Copernicus climate observatory, which showed a dramatic uptick in heat records since 2026. An AFP analysis of the observatory’s data found that around 33 countries, from western Europe to the Sahel and central America, recorded their hottest July in 2026 since records began.
“Rising temperatures mean rising danger in pregnancy,” Stiell said.
He called for urgent action at the Fiji meeting and at COP31, the global summit scheduled for November in Turkey.
For the global community, he said, the task is to adapt to heat while preventing its deadliest effects on those most vulnerable to it. “This fault line must not become another deep chasm of climate-driven suffering, inequality and injustice,” Stiell said.
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