UNICEF has just published a new and and very concerning report on the impact of the climate crisis on child health around the world, emphasising and focusing on what has become one of ISSOP's key missions -
https://www.unicef.org/reports/climate-crisis-child-rights-crisis
The report introduces the Children's Climate risk index is as follows -
'The climate crisis is a child rights crisis' presents the Children’s Climate Risk Index (CCRI), which uses data to generate new global evidence on how many children are currently exposed to climate and environmental hazards, shocks and stresses. A composite index, the CCRI brings together geographical data by analyzing 1.) exposure to climate and environmental hazards, shocks and stresses; and 2.) child vulnerability. The CCRI helps to understand and measure the likelihood of climate and environmental shocks or stresses leading to the erosion of development progress, the deepening of deprivation and/or humanitarian situations affecting children or vulnerable households and groups.
The report indicates that 'globally, approximately 1 billion children (nearly half of the world's children) live in extremely high-risk countries.'
Please tell us what is going on in your country to mitigate the risks of the climate crisis to children, and offer suggestions on actions by ISSOP to help those in power to understand the depth of the crisis.
Tony Waterston
CHIFA profile: Tony Waterston is a retired consultant paediatrician who worked mainly in the community in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. He spent 6 years working in Zambia and Zimbabwe and directed the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Diploma in Palestinian Child Health teaching programme in the occupied Palestinian territories. He was an Editor of the Journal of Tropical Pediatrics and is on the Executive Committee of the International Society for Social Pediatrics. His academic interests are child poverty, advocacy for child health and children's rights. He is currently the lead moderator of CHIFA (HIFA's sister forum on child health and rights). He is also a member of the HIFA Steering Group.
Tony.Waterston AT newcastle.ac.uk
