PHA-Exch> UNICEF UNDERSCORES TOLL CLIMATE CHANGE TAKES ON CHILDREN

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Vern Weitzel <vern at coombs.anu.edu.au>
crossposted from: "[health-vn discussion group]" health-vn at cairo.anu.edu.au

UNICEF UNDERSCORES TOLL CLIMATE CHANGE TAKES ON CHILDREN

Children are among those who are most devastated by climate change, the
United
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced today.

"They pay with their health, their development and – too often – also with
their lives," Hilde Johnson,
<"http://www.unicef.org/media/media_42174.html">UNICEF Deputy Executive
Director, told reporters in New York.

Every year, three million children under the age of five die from
environment-linked diseases, such as diarrhoeal disease, respiratory
infections
and malaria, and the agency predicts that these numbers will rise with
climate
change, she said.

Curbing climate change and UNICEF's top priority – to protect and support
the
health, development and education of children – are closely interlinked.
"Action
to protect the environment will protect the basic rights of children," Ms.
Johnson noted.

Ms. Johnson voiced hope that the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali,
Indonesia, will produce a successful outcome.

Acknowledging that UNICEF does not have an environmental mandate, she said
the
agency nevertheless hopes that emissions reductions become a reality due to
the
detrimental impact of global warming on children.

The agency today also launched a new publication spotlighting the concerns
of
children and youth about climate change.

Entitled "Climate Change and Children," it also outlines the dangers global
warming poses to children in the form of food insecurity, deforestation,
lack of
energy infrastructure, increasing frequency and severity of natural
disasters,
disease and water scarcity.
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