Worsening climate change threatens children’s future

Hanoi (VNA) – According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Vietnam has made progress in ensuring children’s development and sustainable future.

On December 19, the World Health Organisation, the UNICEF, and The Lancet magazine released the report “A Future for the World’s Children?”, which was carried out by a commission of over 40 experts on child and adolescent health from around the world.

Vietnam takes good care of children’s growth

The report found that the health and future of every child and adolescent worldwide is under immediate threat from ecological degradation, climate change and exploitative marketing practices that bombard the group with heavily processed fast food, sugary drinks, alcohol and tobacco.

“It is time for a rethink on child health, one which places children at the top of every government’s development agenda and puts their well-being above all considerations,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director.

The report also included a new global index of 180 countries, comparing their performance on child flourishing, including measures of child survival and well-being, such as health, education, and nutrition; sustainability, with a proxy for greenhouse gas emissions, and equity, or income gaps.

According to the report, while the poorest countries need to do more to support their children’s ability to live healthy lives, excessive carbon emissions – disproportionately from wealthier countries – threaten the future of all children. If global warming exceeds 4 degrees Celsius by the year 2100 in line with current projections, this would lead to devastating health consequences for children, due to rising ocean levels, heatwaves, proliferation of diseases like malaria and dengue, and malnutrition.

The index showed that children in Norway, the Republic of Korea, and the Netherlands have the best chance at survival and well-being, while children in Central African Republic, Chad, Somalia, Niger and Mali face the worst odds. However, when authors took per capita CO2 emissions into account, the top countries trail behind: Norway ranked 156th, the Republic of Korea 166th, and the Netherlands 160th. Each of the three emits 210 percent more CO2 per capita than their 2030 target. The US, Australia, and Saudi Arabia are among the ten worst emitters.

Vietnam is among countries on track to beat CO2 emission per capita targets by 2030, while also performing fairly (within the top 70) on child flourishing measures. These countries also include Albania, Armenia, Grenada, Jordan, Moldova, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, and Uruguay.


“Vietnam is progressing well on both child flourishing and ensuring a sustainable future for children. While its carbon emissions are lower than 2030 targets, they are on the increase. Many Vietnamese children have already been impacted negatively by climate change, especially those exposed to air pollution and those affected by drought and salt water intrusion in the Mekong Delta. Progress can be jump-started by ensuring that all key sectors – health, education, rural development, energy, transport, environment and planning – work together to protect children’s health and well-being. There is no room for complacency,” said Lesley Miller, UNICEF Vietnam Deputy Representative.

Children placed at heart of policy-making

The report highlighted the distinct threat posed to children from harmful marketing. Evidence suggested that children in some countries see as many as 30,000 advertisements on television alone in a single year, while youth exposure to vaping (e-cigarettes) advertisements increased by more than 250 percent in the US over two years, reaching more than 24 million young people.

Children’s exposure to commercial marketing of junk food and sugary beverages is associated with purchase of unhealthy foods and overweight and obesity, linking predatory marketing to the alarming rise in childhood obesity. The number of obese children and adolescents increased from 11 million in 1975 to 124 million in 2016 – an 11-fold increase, with dire individual and societal costs.

To protect children, the independent Commission authors call for a new global movement driven by and for children. They recommended stopping CO2 emissions with the utmost urgency and placing children and adolescents at the centre of the efforts to achieve sustainable development.

They said new policies and investment in all sectors should work towards child health and rights and suggested the tightening of national regulation on harmful commercial marketing, supported by a new Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child./.