Some of the leading killers of children are highly sensitive to climate change, UNICEF says
BANGKOK (AlertNet) – Climate change is expected to worsen the plight of millions of children in East Asia and the Pacific who already lack food and clean water and are vulnerable to disease, the United Nations’ children’s agency UNICEF said Monday.
Some of the leading killers of children worldwide are highly sensitive to climate change, UNICEF said in its report Children’s vulnerabilities to climate change and disaster impacts in East Asia and the Pacific.
“Higher temperatures have been linked to increased rates of malnutrition, cholera, diarrhoeal disease and vector-borne diseases like dengue and malaria,” putting children at far greater risk of contracting these diseases and succumbing to their complications, the report said.
In addition, as climate change affects a family’s livelihood - especially farming - some parents have taken children out of school to help collect water and fuel and supplement household income, it said.
“The scientific research indicates that existing vulnerabilities will likely be exacerbated by continued climate change,” said the report, which drew on findings from UNICEF-commissioned country studies in Indonesia, Kiribati, Mongolia, the Philippines and Vanuatu.
“This is particularly alarming because millions of children in East Asia and the Pacific already experience a range of challenges, from poor access to water and sanitation to malnutrition and disease,” it added.
East Asia and the Pacific is home to a third of the world’s population - or around 2 billion people - and more than 25 percent of the world’s children, around 580 million. According to UNICEF, one in four children in the region is stunted due to poor nutrition.
Children in the region have already noted a range of experiences from climate change, the report said, from threats to livelihoods in Mongolia, dangers of sea level rise in the Pacific Islands, massive flooding in the Philippines and crop failures in Indonesia.
Asia Pacific is also the most disaster-prone region in the world and most deaths from disasters are concentrated here.
“Over the period 1975–2008, Asia accounted for 88 percent of people affected by disasters worldwide, 61 percent of total fatalities and 47 percent of total economic damage,” the report said.
Climate change impacts are also projected to increase the numbers of children affected by natural hazards globally, the report said, from an estimated 66.5 million per year in the late 1990s to as many as 175 million per year in the coming decade.
The report said activities to adapt to the changing climate should take into account the needs of children, and countries and activists should tap children’s “tremendous resource of skill and creativity” to combat climate change.
(Editing by Alex Whiting)
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