Extreme heat has increased the risks of preterm births and other pregnancy complications in Japan, with climate change helping to nearly double the number of days that are harmfully hot for pregnant women in the past five years, new research by a U.S. climate scientists’ group has shown.
A report released Wednesday by Climate Central, a nonprofit science and communications organization, says the number of “pregnancy heat-risk days” — or days when maximum temperatures exceed 95% of historic local temperatures — has gone up by 15 days to 33 days on average per year.
The research, part of the group’s analysis of temperature data from 2020 to 2024 across 247 countries and territories and 940 cities worldwide, shows some prefectures and cities bore the brunt of climate change more severely than others.
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