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Climate change 'hits children the hardest'

29/04/2008

The world's poorest and most vulnerable children are suffering the most from climate change, a report from Unicef claims today.

The agency's report says global warming is impacting very seriously on children and their rights, especially in Africa and Asia.

It claims that increased temperatures will result in greater hunger while changing environments will allow diseases such as malaria and dengue fever to spread further.

Unicef estimates that reduced incomes and threatened livelihoods could cause an additional 40,000 to 160,000 child deaths per year in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa through gross domestic product losses alone.

The negative impact on livelihoods may make it more likely that parents remove their children from school, the report adds.

Unicef says girls are more likely to be removed so they can help collect water and fuel and supplement household income.

Unicef UK executive director David Bull said governments, individuals and the private sector all have a role to play in targeting climate change.

"If the world does not act now to mitigate and adapt to the risks and realities of climate change, we will seriously hamper efforts to reach the millennium development goals by 2015 and sustain development progress thereafter," he added.

"Many more children could die. It's clear that a failure to address climate change is a failure to protect children."

The Unicef report calls on the government to ensure a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of at least 80 per cent against 1990 levels by 2050 and for UK companies and individuals to substantially reduce their emissions and contribute to the costs of mitigating and adapting to climate change.