O=C=O<p>Children born in 2020 will face ‘unprecedented exposure’ to climate extremes</p><p>That is according to a new study, published in <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/Nature" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Nature</span></a>, which calculates the number of unprecedented extreme events that people born in different decades and countries might live through.</p><p>Using a case study focused on <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/Brussels" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Brussels</span></a>, the researchers find that people born in 2020 will experience an “unprecedented” 11 <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/heatwaves" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>heatwaves</span></a> in their lifetime – even if <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/GlobalWarming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>GlobalWarming</span></a> is limited to 1.5C by the end of the century.</p><p>In contrast, in a pre-industrial <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/climate" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>climate</span></a>, a person living in the Belgian capital would likely experience just three such heatwaves, according to the study.</p><p>More than half of children born in 2020 – around 62 million people – will experience “unprecedented lifetime exposure” to heatwaves, even if warming is limited to 1.5C, the study finds. </p><p>However, this number nearly doubles to 111 million under a scenario where warming hits 3.5C.</p><p>The study also analyses crop failures, river <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/floods" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>floods</span></a>, tropical <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/cyclones" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>cyclones</span></a>, <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/wildfires" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>wildfires</span></a> and <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/droughts" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>droughts</span></a>. </p><p>The research “helps the climate community build new narratives that better clarify the impacts [of <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/ClimateChange" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ClimateChange</span></a>] on younger generations and vulnerable populations”, one expert who was not involved in the study tells Carbon Brief.</p><p><a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/children-born-in-2020-will-face-unprecedented-exposure-to-climate-extremes/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">carbonbrief.org/children-born-</span><span class="invisible">in-2020-will-face-unprecedented-exposure-to-climate-extremes/</span></a></p><p><a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/ClimateCatastrophe" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ClimateCatastrophe</span></a> <br><a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/SDG3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SDG3</span></a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/SDG13" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SDG13</span></a> <br><a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/ExtremeWeather" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ExtremeWeather</span></a></p>