The University of Notre Dame published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences examining the relationship between human-caused temperature anomalies and childhood stunting. The analysis found that each 1 degree Celsius increase in human-caused temperature anomalies corresponds to a 3.45 percent rise in childhood stunting rates across 34 African countries.

The study analyzed 16 years of data, combining ERA5 weather reanalysis data to map daily near-surface temperatures with climate simulations from the Detection and Attribution Model Intercomparison Project. This approach aimed to isolate warming patterns specifically caused by human activity. The analysis indicated no direct correlation between general weather variability and childhood stunting, but it demonstrated a statistically measurable relationship between human-induced warming and childhood stunting.

Arun Agrawal, a development policy professor, said the study findings showed, "A single degree of warming might sound negligible in a daily weather report, but on a global scale, it alters the foundational conditions of child survival."

The direct impact of global warming on childhood stunting was highest in rural areas with limited access to municipal services. Community-level socioeconomic inequality consistently predicted childhood stunting rates in the dataset. Agrawal said regarding the stunting data, "If we want to protect the next generation, we have to look at the problem through a holistic lens. Any successful climate initiative must simultaneously be a social inequality initiative."

Nabin Pradhan, a postdoctoral research fellow and co-author, emphasized the study's implications for child health. Pradhan said, "While this observational, model-backed data gives us a robust global picture, the next step is establishing deeper causality through long-term, household-level experimental studies. Future research should examine how climate change and structural inequalities interact to influence childhood stunting, helping identify interventions that improve child health and resilience in a warming world."