The Philippines is at “extremely high-risk” to the ravages of climate change, a new UNICEF report said.
Its impacts are likely to get worse as climate change accelerates, according to UNICEF’s Children’s Climate Risk Index made public August 20.
With just 0.42 of global carbon dioxide emissions, the Philippines ranks No. 31 among 163 countries.
One billion children or nearly half of the world’s 2.2 billion children live in one of 33 countries, including the Philippines, classified as “extremely high-risk.”
The Index — the first comprehensive analysis of climate risk from a child’s perspective — ranks countries based on children’s exposure to climate and environmental shocks and their vulnerability to those shocks based on their access to essential services.
It examines for the first time exactly how many children live in areas that experience multiple, overlapping climate and environmental risks that trigger, reinforce and magnify each other.
“Young people living in the Philippines are among those most at risk of the impacts of climate change, threatening their health, education and protection,” UNICEF Philippines said, adding Filipino children are highly exposed to coastal floods and tropical cyclones.
“Filipino children face many dangers within their lifetimes,” said UNICEF Philippines Representative Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov.
“If we act now we can prevent it becoming worse, if we invest to make the services they depend upon to survive and thrive.”
Investments on social services, particularly child health and nutrition, can make a significant difference in safeguarding the futures of Filipino children from the impacts of climate change, the UNICEF report said.
The report provides an initial assessment to help prioritize action for those most at risk.
It said the only long-term solution to the climate crisis is a reduction of emissions to safe levels — reaching net-zero by 2050 in order to stay on course for warming that does not exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Another solution is to invest on improving access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services that can considerably reduce overall climate risk for 415 million children.
Improving access to resilient WASH services could include comprehensive assessments of water resources, investing in diversifying water sources, using renewable energy, and working with local markets to ensure that water and sanitation services constructed take climate risks into consideration.
It can also include increasing water storage facilities at household levels, as well as multiple-use water schemes which provide water for domestic and livelihood needs.
Children are more vulnerable to climate and environmental shocks than adults, the report pointed out.
Children are less able to withstand and survive shocks such as floods, droughts, severe weather and heatwaves.
Even at lower doses of exposure, toxic substances such as lead and other forms of pollution affect children more than adults.
Children are more at risk of death compared with adults from diseases that are likely to be exacerbated by climate change, such as malaria and dengue.
“They have their whole life ahead of them — any deprivation as a result of climate and environmental degradation at a young age can result in a lifetime of lost opportunity,” the UNICEF report observed.
The report comes ahead of the November 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.
It was launched on the third anniversary of the Fridays for Future climate movement launched by Greta Thunberg of Sweden.
