Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnamese children are heavilyexposed to air pollution and flooding, said a report launched by the UnitedNations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on August 20.

The report, namely ‘The Climate Crisis Is a Child RightsCrisis: Introducing the Children’s Climate Risk Index’, is the firstcomprehensive analysis of climate risks from a child’s perspective. It rankscountries based on children’s exposure to climate and environmental shocks,such as cyclones and heatwaves, as well as their vulnerability to those shocks,based on their access to essential services.

Lesley Miller, Deputy Representative of UNICEF in Vietnam, said the living environment in Vietnam is becoming more and more risky forchildren.

Immediate actions can prevent the situation from gettingworse, she affirmed, adding that ensuring access to suitable social welfare networksand resilience-enhancing services such as clean water, health care andeducation will help protect children’s future.

Launched in collaboration with Fridays for Future on the thirdanniversary of the youth-led global climate strike movement, the report findsapproximately 1 billion children – nearly half the world's 2.2 billion children– live in one of the 33 countries classified as “extremely high-risk”.

While nearly every child around the world is at risk from atleast one of these climate and environmental hazards, the data reveal the worstaffected countries face multiple and often overlapping shocks that threaten toerode development progress and deepen child deprivations.

An estimated 850 million children – 1 in 3 worldwide – livein areas where at least four of these climate and environmental shocks overlap.As many as 330 million children – 1 in 7 worldwide – live in areas affected byat least five major shocks./.