Almost half the world’s 2.2 billion children are already at “extremely high risk” from the impacts of the climate crisis and pollution, according to a report from Unicef.
The Unicef report said the impacts of the climate crisis were “deeply inequitable” and very likely to get worse. The top 10 countries that are at extremely high risk are only responsible for 0.5% of global emissions.
Nearly every child around the world was at risk from at least one of these impacts today, including heatwaves, floods, cyclones, disease, drought, and air pollution, the report said. But 1 billion children live in 33 countries facing three or four impacts simultaneously. The countries include India, Nigeria and the Philippines, and much of sub-Saharan Africa.
Henrietta Fore, Unicef executive director, said: “For the first time, this report gives a complete picture of where and how children are vulnerable to climate change, and that picture is almost unimaginably dire. Virtually no child’s life will be unaffected.”
She continues, ”Children are uniquely vulnerable to climate hazards. Compared to adults, children require more food and water per unit of body weight and are less able to survive extreme weather events.”
The report found 920 million children are highly exposed to water scarcity, 820 million to heatwaves, and 600 million to vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever, which are likely to get worse as suitable climate conditions for mosquitoes and pathogens spread.
A billion children at ‘extreme risk’ from climate impacts – Unicef | Climate change | The Guardian
No comments:
Post a Comment