CLIMATE CHANGE BIG RISK FOR INDIAN CHILDREN: UNICEF

New Delhi: India is among four South Asian countries where children are most at risk of the impacts of climate change threatening their health, education, and protection, according to a new UNICEF report.

‘The Climate Crisis Is a Child Rights Crisis: Introducing the Children's Climate Risk Index’ (CCRI) is UNICEF's first focussed on children. It ranks countries based on children's exposure to climate and environmental shocks such as cyclones and heatwaves, as well as their vulnerability to those shocks based on their access to essential services.

Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and India are among four South Asian countries where children are at extremely high risk of the impacts of the climate crisis, with a ranking of 14th, 15th,

25th and 26th respectively. CCRI has placed India as one of the 33 extremely high-risk countries with flooding and air pollution being the repeated environmental shocks leading to socio-economic adverse consequences for women and children. Approximately 1 billion children live in one of the 33 countries classified as extremely high-risk, including the four South Asian countries.

It is estimated that more than

600 million Indians will face 'acute water shortages' in the coming years, while at the same time flash flooding is to increase significantly in the majority of India's urban areas once the global temperature increase rises above 2 Celsius.