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UNICEF / CLIMATE CHANGE
STORY: UNICEF / CLIMATE CHANGE
TRT: 2:10
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNICEF ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: NATS
DATELINE: FILE – 17 AUGUST 2017, RANGPUR DIVISION, BANGLADESH / 24 MARCH 2017, TURKANA COUNTY, KENYA
FILE - 17 AUGUST 2017, RANGPUR DIVISION, BANGLADESH
1. Aerial shot, flooded area
2. Wide shot, child wearing backpack sitting on wood structure avoiding water
3. Wide shot, flooded street with boys sitting on wood structure
4. Traveling shot, streets flooded, boy crossing road
5. Wide shot, people in front of flooded home
6. Wide shot, flooded area
7. Wide shot, boy crossing flooded street by home
8. Wide shot, girl walking through flood waters
9. Wide shot, boy sitting in boat by flooded homes
10. Wide shot, children in flood waters
11. Wide shot, man fishing in flood waters
12. Pan right, people standing on edge of flood waters
13. Med shot, flooded home
14. Wide shots, flooded school building
FILE - 24 MARCH 2017, TURKANA COUNTY, KENYA
15. Drone shot, from shad structure to children digging for water
16. Various shots, children inside well filling water
17. Wide shot, man giving water to cattle
18. Wide shot, woman walking on arid land carrying jerrycan
19. Med shot, woman placing jerrycan in hut
20. Wide shot, children walking past mechanical well
21. Aerial shot, camels gathering in arid land by well
22. Various shots, child pulling water out of well for camels
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned that the large number of extreme weather events around the world are putting children in immediate danger and jeopardizing their futures.
June and July saw record high temperatures set across much of the northern hemisphere, with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reporting the first six months of the year have made it the hottest La Niña year on record.
From North America to East Asia, and from the Arctic Circle to Europe, large parts of the globe have experienced heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, floods, and landslides resulting in injury and loss of life, environmental damage and widespread loss to livelihoods including harvest losses. UNICEF said countries in Central America and the Caribbean are preparing for the peak of the hurricane season while still trying to recover from the devastating 2017 season, which was the costliest on record.
UNICEF noted that while individual weather events cannot specifically be attributed to climate change, the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather -- including recent high temperatures, intense rains and slow-moving weather fronts -- are in line with predictions of how human activities are affecting the global climate.
The Fund said such events could cause death and devastation, and could also contribute to the increased spread of major killers of children, such as malnutrition, malaria and diarrhoea. It stressed that as these extreme climate events increase in frequency and magnitude, the risks to children would likely outpace global capacity to mitigate them as well as to provide humanitarian response.
Numerous studies have documented that human-induced climate change has increased the frequency and severity of heatwaves across the globe. UNICEF said children are especially at risk as they are slower than adults in adjusting to changes in environmental heat and are more susceptible to heat-related health risks, with children under 12 months old particularly vulnerable. Infants and small children are more likely to die or suffer from heatstroke because they are unable to regulate their body temperature and control their surrounding environment. Extreme heat conditions also increase the need for safe and reliable drinking water, while in many cases rendering such water scarcer through evaporation.
UNICEF said its agenda for action on climate change includes strengthening health systems to respond to a changing climate and more frequent extreme weather events, increasing the ability of educational services to be delivered in the aftermath of extreme weather events, increasing investment in and delivery of climate resilient agricultural, water and sanitation services, and putting in place measures to protect children who have been displaced, migrate or are refugees as a result of climate change or climate-related impacts among others.
The Fund said it was looking to deepen the evidence base on the links not only between climate action and global weather events but also between a low-carbon economy and the potential for employment generation, local air pollution and national energy security. UNICEF emphasized that responding to climate change makes sense from the perspectives of national security, domestic economy, and the health of children.
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