In a study published in the journal Science, researchers said that children born in 2020 will experience extreme climate events at a rate two to seven times higher than those born in 1960, whereas an older generation will experience an average of about four extreme heat waves during their lifetime.
With the current rate of global warming and the lack of preventative national policies, heat waves, droughts, crop failures, floods, wildfires, and tropical cyclones are likely to rise in frequency, intensity, and duration, the study detailed.
As the risk increases, researchers have underscored that children of younger generations in various regions of the world are expected to have their safety "severely threatened by climate change".
The study shows that people younger than 25 by 2020 in lower-income nations, such as countries within the Middle East and northern Africa, have a higher likelihood of experiencing a worsening climate than peers in more developed countries.
Researchers determined their findings using data from a 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.
News of the study came as the Youth4Climate summit kicked off in Milan, Italy, where young activists have gathered to discuss climate change and actionable change.
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg mocked the climate rhetoric of world leaders at the youth climate summit on Tuesday, including that of US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The teen asserted during her remarks that the last 30 years of climate action has amounted to nothing more than "blah, blah, blah".
"This is all we hear from our so-called leaders — words. Words that sound great but so far have led to no action", she said at the event.
The study comes at a crucial time, as leaders prepare to gather in Glasgow, Scotland, in late October, for a 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference to negotiate new pledges that they assert will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.