Climate change accelerates child malnutrition as study reveals link to heat exposure

04 Aug 2022 --- Increased temperatures can worsen nutritional intake, according to a 15 year study across five West African countries. The findings reveal a link between heat exposure, child malnutrition and poor economic outcomes. NutritionInsight speaks to the development economist and lead researcher of the study, Sylvia Blom, who delves into the relationship between malnutrition and heat exposure.

“We show that average heat exposure in our study region increases the prevalence of acute and chronic malnutrition. What’s concerning about this is that as temperatures rise (as is predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), more children will be exposed to these dangerous levels of extreme heat.”

Erasing 15 years of progressGlobal warming accelerates acute malnutrition, agriculture challenges and poor economics.
Extreme heat is an escalating issue, growing globally at a rapid pace that destroys the possibility of agriculture at a “historic level” for European farmers. Published in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, the study further delves into agriculture and explores the relationship between rainfall and child nutrition.

 “There are several links between heat and poverty, within and across countries, although these are not all causal and are not related to macroeconomic shocks. Low-income countries tend to be located in warmer areas of the world, and within low-income countries, poorer households’ well-being may be more vulnerable to extreme temperatures.”

“Most of the causal evidence linking extreme heat to economic outcomes is at the micro level (ie, individual, household level).” She also stressed that extreme heat reduces agricultural yield and increases mortality. According to the study, if temperatures rise by two degrees celsius, the progress made in improving children’s nutrition during the study period (an average of 15 years) will be undone.

“Our work estimates the effect of extreme heat on chronic and acute malnutrition using current heat exposure. We find that average heat exposure increases the prevalence of stunting by 7.4 percentage points (average heat exposure being the average heat level that children were exposed to during the study period),” says Blom. 

She adds that, at current levels, extreme heat is already damaging child growth. “Various climate models predict rises in temperatures – we use the average effect we estimate to predict how many more children will be malnourished as a result of extreme heat.”

What’s the solution?
Blom says that the next-best solution depends on the mechanisms – how heat leads to malnutrition.

“Ideally, we would want to slow, stop, or even reverse rising temperatures to reduce children being exposed to extreme heat in the first place. As temperatures already appear to be rising, this is becoming more difficult.” 

“Unfortunately, due to data limitations, we cannot isolate specific mechanisms. It is likely a combination of biological and economic mechanisms. Hopefully, future work will be able to say more on this and provide more specific policy recommendations.”Temperature rises should be stopped or even reversed to remove impact on children, economist say.

Global recession?
A UNICEF report titled The climate crisis is a child rights crisis, describes the previous six years as the “hottest on record.” Stressing that 820 million children, resulting in over a third of the world’s children, are currently exposed to heatwaves.

The report highlights that children, especially infants, have a higher difficulty adjusting to changes in temperatures than adults because of their internal heat regulation. Additionally, it highlights that children with access to health and nutrition are more resilient to climate shocks, increasing the mortality rate for those who don’t have the same access. 

Earlier this year UNICEF warned of an “explosion of deaths” in the Horn of Africa caused by drought, the COVID-19 pandemic and increased food prices. “Eight million children under the age of five are risking death from severe wasting, a number expected to grow by the minute.”

Further compounding the problem, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports the global economy is set to worsen. The IMF stresses before the Ukraine war started, the people expected to be worst affected by acute malnutrition are those already at risk and living in low-income countries.

Given the external macroeconomic uncertainties, such as the energy crisis, inflation and food shortages, the IMF report highlights that the probability of recession has increased. For some G7 economies, the probability of entering a recession is 15%, “four times higher than its usual level.”

By Beatrice Wihlander