Climate Change “Affecting Poor Children”

Now to the other side of our oil addiction. Climate change is already affecting the prospects for children in the world’s poorer countries, according to Unicef.

The UN children’s agency says that increases in floods, droughts and insect-borne disease will all affect health, education and welfare. While richer societies can adjust, it says in a new report, poorer ones do not have the resources. “Those who have contributed least to climate change – the world’s poorest children – are suffering the most,” said David Bull, executive director of Unicef UK “If the world does not act now to mitigate and adapt to the risks and realities of climate change, we will seriously hamper efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 and sustain development progress thereafter.”

The report is launched in the UK 10 years to the day after the government signed the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Did signing it make any difference?