CLIMATE CHANGE AND CHILD HEALTH OUTCOMES IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Abstract

Evidence of climate change in the form of rising temperatures and sea levels, melting of ice and glaciers, increased weather events, and the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is increasingly being established in the literature. Whether the direct effect of climate change on children's health in the SSA region is available remains unclear. Using data from the World Bank open data catalogue, Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) project database, Centre for Systemic Peace/Integrated Network for Societal Conflict Research data resources, the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit database, the historical index of ethnic fractionalization dataset, and the Uppsala Conflict Data Programme/Peace Research Institute Oslo dataset, an unbalanced panel data set for 48 countries designated as Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) was constructed. The data was applied to panel data estimators. The results from the GMM estimation suggest that changes in rainfall and temperature anomalies are strongly associated with child health outcomes. Precisely, while a unit increase in rainfall anomaly will decrease under-five mortality by -0.08, a unit rise in temperature anomaly will increase underfive deaths by 0.40. The study concludes that there will be a decline in child health outcomes with an increase in temperature and a reduction in rainfall. The climate effect on today’s children’s health is likely to persist throughout their lifetime if the projections that a possible 2°C increase in global average temperature could be attained by the end of the 21st century. Transitioning to renewable energy sources and adopting sustainable land use practices could be crucial in mitigating the effects of climate change on child health outcomes.