Unicef's Climate Risk Index for Children: It hits those who can't help it

Dear readers,

The debate on the climate crisis and the measures to combat it is also about justice.

Is it fair that a tenth of humanity is responsible for more than a third of greenhouse gas emissions?

Is it fair that the people who hardly contribute to global warming themselves suffer most from its consequences?

This second question arises mainly in a regional context, but not only.

A new report by the United Nations Children's Fund Unicef ​​shows that the climate crisis threatens a billion children, it threatens their health, their education, their protection.

So many children around the world are "extremely at risk", according to the report - from floods, drought, fire and heat, from spreading diseases and from polluted air.

1,000,000,000 children.

Unicef ​​published the “First Climate Risk Index for Children

”

this Friday together with Fridays for Future.

The children are not to be blamed for the fact that the world is like this today.

Children do not own oil companies or cars with internal combustion engines, children do not run coal-fired power plants, do not go on business trips and rarely buy schnitzel in the supermarket.

Children don't make laws.

And yet almost every second child in the world is affected by the consequences of the climate crisis.

Specifically, the report says:

• Almost 600 million children are

  affected

  by

  floods

  , 240 million of them in coastal regions and 330 million in rivers.

• Hurricanes

  affect

  400 million children

  around

  the world.

• 600 million children are at high risk of contracting

  diseases

  that are becoming

  more common as a result of global warming, such as malaria.

• 820 million children are severely affected by

  heat waves

  .

• 920 million children are threatened with

  water scarcity

  or are already experiencing it.

• 1 billion children are

  affected

  by extremely high

  levels of air pollution

  .

There is hardly a child in the world who is not threatened by at least one of these climate and environmental dangers, shows the Unicef ​​report.

In the hardest hit countries, many children are confronted with several of these "shocks" at the same time.

The children who are threatened by the climate crisis in various ways are not evenly distributed across the globe.

Children in the Central African Republic, Chad, Nigeria, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau - in states on the African continent - are most affected.

Africa's share of global greenhouse gas emissions is single-digit.

The report identifies 33 countries as "extremely risky" - but these 33 countries are responsible for only nine percent of global CO2 emissions.

“Climate change is deeply unfair.

Although children are not responsible for the rise in global temperatures, they will pay the highest price for it, ”says Unicef ​​Executive Director Henrietta Fore.

It is therefore calling on companies and governments to accelerate their efforts to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Children are less resilient than adults

The dangers mentioned naturally affect everyone, young and old.

But, says Unicef: Children are less resilient, less resilient than adults.

Overall, they are more prone to temperature fluctuations and illnesses.

The Germany boss of Unicef, Christian Schneider, says: “We must immediately and urgently invest more in adapting the living conditions of children to the changes in their environment.

We have to strengthen their resilience by improving their basic services. "

And he also says: We should "enable the children to understand what is happening to the earth - also so that they can act themselves."

Children usually have a very good sense of injustice.

If you like, we will inform you once a week about the most important things about the climate crisis - stories, research results and the latest developments on the biggest topic of our time.

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Your Viola Kiel