Climate change triggers 8,830 preterm births

Mumbai: Climate change may be threatening unborn babies with a new study claiming that global-warming triggered an additional 8,830 premature births in India in just one month - April 2024 – with Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal among the worst-hit states.

Besides India, the toll attributed to climate change in Bangladesh and Philippines stood at an estimated 10,600 pre-term babies during that month, said the report released by Zero Carbon Analytics (ZCA) – a week before the UN Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Turkiye from Nov. 9-20.

No longer restricted to rising temperatures, melting glaciers, erratic monsoons or unpredictable floods and droughts, the climate change effects are now directly affecting public health and pregnant women, pushing them into premature labour and endangering the lives of newborns or potentially threatening them with lifelong health issues if born before completing 37-weeks of full pregnancy, indicates the report.

The ZCA said that the April 2024 heatwave which engulfed large parts of South and Southeast Asia, was made at least 45 times more likely by human-caused climate change. Without this human-induced warming, the study estimates that these 10,600 additional premature births could have been avoided, said this first of its kind study.

Citing the overall impact, it compared April 2024 with a typical April month, with researchers finding approximately 16,150 excess pre-term (premature) births across the three countries. India recorded a 3.6pc increase, against 11.9pc in Bangladesh and 10pc in the Philippines. In India, the burden was heavily concentrated in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Jharkhand, which together accounted for approximately two-thirds of the country’s excess premature births.

Frightening Future
The future could be even more frightening, warn the researchers under the upcoming global warming scenarios and gloomy predictions. The experts claim that India could witness more than 15,000 excess preterm birth during a typical April by 2050 – or nearly double of April 2024 in barely 25 years.

While UP is projected to face the maximum burden of such premature births, Bihar and even Rajasthan would follow, as per the ZCA study which combined temperatures and birth data, climate attribution sciences and advanced climate modelling.

Lead Author Dr. Joanne Bentley-Mckune and ZCA’s Senior Research Analyst said climate change was making extreme heat more frequent and intense, increasing preterm births.