1 Billion Children At "Extremely High Risk" Due To Climate Change: Report

Some one billion children are at "extremely high risk" due to climate change harms, a rights group warned on Wednesday, adding that youths' living standards failed to improve in the last decade.

On Wednesday, a rights group warned that nearly one billion children are at "extremely severe risk" from the damages of climate change, adding that young people's living standards have failed to improve in the past decade.

The KidsRights Index, based on figures provided by United Nations agencies, indicates that more than a third of the world's children, about 820 million,

It is currently exposed to heat waves.

The Dutch NGO KidsRights said water scarcity affected 920 million children worldwide, while diseases such as malaria and dengue fever affected nearly 600 million children, or one in four.

The Children's Rights Index is the first and only ranking that measures how children's rights are respected annually,

Iceland, Sweden and Finland ranked best on children's rights, and Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Chad ranked worst, out of 185 countries.

Among the top three countries, only Sweden's ranking changed from the previous year, moving to second place from fourth.

Mark Dollart, Founder and President of KidsRights,

He described this year's report as "alarming for our present and future generations of our children."

"The rapidly changing climate is now threatening their future and basic rights," he said.

"There has been no significant progress in children's life standards over the past decade, and on top of that their livelihoods have been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic," added Dollart.

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It was the Covid-pandemic

19 Serious impact on children, who could not get food or medicine due to disruptions and closing of clinics

KidsRights said, resulting in approximately 286,000 under-five deaths as a result.

For the first time in two decades, the number of working children has risen to 160 million, which is an increase of 8.

4 million over the past four years, according to the Children's Rights Index, compiled with Erasmus University in Rotterdam.

KidsRights highlighted Angola and Bangladesh, saying that the two countries significantly improved their scores in terms of children's rights.

Angola has cut the under-five mortality rate in half, while Bangladesh has cut the number of underweight children under five by almost half.

But the report also slapped Montenegro for its low vaccination numbers, ranking 49th on the index.

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