Maternal and Child Health

Save the Children Warns that Climate Change is ‘Biggest health threat for children’

Climate change is the biggest health threat to children in the 21st century and represents an immediate global emergency, according to a new report, “Feeling the Heat,” released today by Save the Children at the Barcelona Climate Change talks.

As many as 175 million children per year will be hit hardest as natural disasters increase over the next decade. No one will be immune from the effects of climate change, but children will feel the brunt of disasters such as floods, cyclones and droughts, as they get worse, the international children’s organisation said. These disasters will combine with an increase in malnutrition and disease, already the biggest killers of children.

The new report, “Feeling the Heat: Child Survival in a Changing Climate”, calls on world leaders to sign an ambitious climate change agreement at the United Nations Copenhagen Climate Conference (COP 15) in December 2009— an agreement that helps the world’s poorest children cope with the effects of global warming. According to the report, climate change also will more than treble the number of people caught up in natural disasters in the next 20 years, with natural disasters more frequent and severe due to climate change. Download the full report here.

The report warns that climate change will exacerbate the leading causes of death of children, including diarrhea, malnutrition and malaria.

“Unless action is taken, climate change will become a slow-motion train wreck with the world’s children on board,” said Rudolph von Bernuth, emergency director for Save the Children.