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Over 222 million children in India are living under the 'dual burden' of poverty and vulnerability to adverse climate impacts, according to a recent report by Save the Children.
The report found that 183 million children across the world face the triple threat of high climate risk, multidimensional poverty and conflict.
More than half of these children live in only five countries: Nigeria, India, Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Democratic Republic of Congo.
India is on the top of the list of countries where children are under the threat of both climate change and poverty.
Approximately 51% children in India are impacted by both-- poverty and climate change.
"Delayed rains and extreme temperatures have been hampering food production in China, India, Europe and North America," the report revealed.
"Climate change isn’t something people get to choose to believe or not: it’s happening," the report said quoting a 12-year-old boy, living in an urban slum Tamil Nadu in India.
The report also emphasised on a larger demand for change from children across the globe, including India.
The report has found that 774 million children across the world are adversely affected by climate change, many of them are also living in poverty and therefore do not have the resources against these climate events.
It analyses the risk factors for children through groups that are affected by the following:
Climate vulnerability
Poverty
Conflict zones
Those affected by two of the three aforementioned categories
Those affected by all three
The report, 'Generation Hope: 2.4 billion reasons to end the global climate and inequality crisis', was done in collaboration with climate researchers from Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
In Asia, 350 million children are at risk due to both climate emergency and poverty, the 'double threat'.
Cambodia ranked highest on most likely to face this 'double threat', with 72% of children falling in the category, followed by Myanmar at 64% and Afghanistan at 57%.
While these are all developing countries and 653 million children are at risk, higher-income countries are not exempted from the risk of climate change and poverty.
With COP27 and G20 summits approaching in November, Sudarshan Suchi, Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children, India believes that our most vulnerable children should be at the forefront of our leaders minds.
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