'Filipino kids hit hard by climate change'

LUCKY BOYS Vice President Sara Duterte poses for a photo with two boys during the celebration of World Children’s Day on Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023, at the Quezon City Memorial Circle. PHOTO BY ISMAEL DE JUAN

By Ma. Reina Leanne Tolentino

VICE President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte said climate change has hit Filipino children hard, thus the need to address the crisis.

"This year, let us acknowledge the urgent need to address the climate crisis — a threat that disproportionately impacts children and threatens their prospects. The climate crisis is a child rights crisis that affects children's lives, education and health. And climate change is hitting Filipino kids hard."

She said typhoons cause flooding, landslides and storm surges in high-risk areas, affecting children.

The vice president said the country ranked first in the World Risk Index for 2022.

From 2016 to 2021, about 9.7 million Filipino children were displaced because of climate-change related events.

"These displacements caused increased diseases, respiratory illnesses and long-term mental health issues among children," she said.

"Disasters force children to miss school, affect their learning and their future. In rural communities, where agriculture is the main industry, these calamities generate food shortages and malnutrition," she added.

Duterte said children must be given "meaningful participation" in the fight against climate change.

"As adults, we must commit to walking the talk. We can start by reducing our carbon footprints and living sustainably. We must also promote programs that encourage kids to improve their community's disaster resilience. The upcoming COP28 presents a critical opportunity for the Philippine government to design and implement child-responsive climate action that prioritizes the needs and perspectives of children."

More deaths

Experts earlier warned that more people will die from extreme heat and that without action, the health of humanity "is at grave risk."

The Lancet Countdown, a major annual assessment carried out by leading researchers and institutions, said more common droughts will put millions at risk of starving, mosquitoes spreading farther than ever before will take infectious diseases with them, and health systems will struggle to cope with the burden.

Last year people worldwide were exposed to an average of 86 days of life-threatening temperatures, according to the Lancet Countdown study. Around 60 percent of those days were made more than twice as likely due to climate change, it said.

The number of people over 65 who died from heat rose by 85 percent from 1991-2000 to 2013-2022, it added.

"However, these impacts that we are seeing today could be just an early symptom of a very dangerous future," Lancet Countdown's executive director Marina Romanello said.

Under a scenario in which the world warms by two degrees Celsius by the end of the century — it is currently on track for 2.7 C — annual heat-related deaths were projected to increase 370 percent by 2050. That marks a 4.7-fold increase.

Around 520 million more people will experience moderate or severe food insecurity by mid-century, according to the projections.

And mosquito-borne infectious diseases will continue to spread into new areas. The transmission of dengue would increase by 36 percent under a 2.0 C warming scenario, according to the study.

WITH AFP