Children born in 2020 could experience seven times more extreme heat waves than people born in 1960

Based on current commitments, the Earth’s average temperature is expected to increase by about 2.4 degrees Celsius from the pre-industrial era by 2100.

Tighter cuts that would limit warming to just 1.5 ° C would reduce – but not erase – the disparity : Children born in 2020 could still experience four times more extreme heat waves than people born in 1960.

Youth exposure for the first time quantified

Scientists have already described how climate change has already magnified extreme weather events around the world and how these climate impacts are expected to increase as the world continues to heat up. The new study published in the journal Science is the first to specifically quantify to what extent younger generations will be more exposed to these

A child born in 2020 will also experience twice as many forest fires, 2, 8 times more river floods, 2.6 times more droughts and about three times more crop failures than a child born 60 years earlier , according to climate scenarios based on current commitments.

Thiery and colleagues note that these findings come at a crucial time, as world leaders prepare to meet in Glasgow, Scotland, at the end of October for the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference to negotiate new commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.