Extreme heat is not only harming the health of slum dwellers across Africa, but also damaging their ability to earn a living, with around a quarter reporting they had to take time off work, an independent research body said in a report this week.

Across the Global South, a growing crisis of overheating cities is impacting the health and livelihoods of more than 1 billion people living in informal settlements, a figure expected to increase sevenfold by 2050, the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) said in the report.

¡°Heat waves and other extreme weather can derail productivity, disrupt children¡¯s schooling and cause health problems,¡± IIED principal researcher Anna Walnycki said in a statement. ¡°Wherever you look, people with the fewest resources are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis.¡±