Climate change affects everything, including the right to vote — a foundational and core right in democracies. Wicked weather increasingly threatens the exercise of that right by making it harder for people to register to vote, to get to the polls, and to have their ballots counted. And in 2024, already a record-breaking year for global average temperature, more than 80 countries — home to more than half the world’s population — are holding nationwide elections.
Deliberate attacks on electoral integrity abound, ranging from disinformation campaigns to Consider election day. Voting should not imperil human health. But standing in hours-long lines outdoors on a very hot day can do just that, causing heat stroke and even death. Extreme heat takes an exceptionally large toll on older people, young children, and pregnant women. It is also dangerous for those with certain pre-existing medical conditions such as heart disease. potential for violence, challenging the capacity of societies to manage elections. But one set of risks is growing even without nefarious intent: that posed by extreme weather events. Those risks will continue to increase as climate change worsens a panoply of extreme weather events such as heat waves, wildfires, hurricanes, deluges, and floods.