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"Adam MacIsaac" [ Profil ] |
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Poor children main victims of climate change - U.N.
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Apr 30th, 2008 - 08:52:20 |
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Here is an article written by Jeremy Lovell, this is what we will be
leaving for future generations if actions are not taken now to address
this issue. I hope that this will give everyone some reading material
and some ideas to help with the submission process for the UNDP Youth
Climate Change Publication.
Poor children main victims of climate change - U.N.
LONDON (Reuters) - Millions of the world's poorest children are among
the principal victims of climate change caused by the rich developed
world, a United Nations report said on Tuesday, calling for urgent
action.
The UNICEF report "Our Climate, Our Children, Our Responsibility"
measured action on targets set in the U.N. Millennium Development
Goals, aimed at halving child poverty by 2015. It found failure on
counts from health to survival, education and gender equality.
"It is clear that a failure to address climate change is a failure to
protect children," said UNICEF UK director David Bull. "Those who have
contributed least to climate change the world's poorest children
are suffering the most."
The report said climate change could add 40,000-160,000 child deaths a
year in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa through lower economic growth.
It also noted that if temperatures rose by two degrees Celsius above
pre-industrial levels, up to 200 million people globally would face
hunger a figure that climbs to 550 million with a temperature rise
of three degrees.
The UNICEF report said economic damage due to climate change would
force parents to withdraw children from schools often the only place
they are guaranteed at least one meal a day to fetch water and fuel
instead.
Environmental changes wrought by climate change will also expand the
range of deadly diseases such as malaria, which already kills 800,000
children a year and is now being seen in previously unaffected areas.
Scientists predict global average temperatures will rise by between
1.6 and 4.0 degrees Celsius this century due to carbon emissions from
burning fossil fuels for power and transport, causing floods, famines,
violent storms and droughts.
An international agreement is being sought on action to ensure
temperatures do not rise more than 2.0 degrees.
INEVITABLE
But some environmentalists say a 2.0 degree rise is inevitable
whatever action is taken now. That is partly because of the 30-year
time lag in climate response to emitted carbon, and partly because
nations like China, which opens a new coal-fired power station a week,
cannot and will not stop burning carbon.
China, with vast coal reserves and an economy growing at 10 percent a
year, is set to overtake the United States as the world's biggest
carbon emitter.
Developing nations, under pressure to sign up to new curbs on carbon
emissions at the end of next year, say there is no reason they should
keep their people in poverty when the problem has been caused by the
developed world.
"Rich countries' responsibility for the bulk of past emissions demands
that we give our strong support," said Nicholas Stern, whose 2006
report on the economic implications of the climate crisis sparked
international concern.
"Business-as-usual or delayed action would lead to the probability of
much higher temperature increases which would catastrophically
transform our planet," he wrote in a foreword to Tuesday's report.
"It will be the young and the poor and developing countries that will
suffer earliest and hardest.
"We cannot allow this to happen."
(c) Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
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