Unopended by Climate ChangeA NEW global stocktaking report released today by Unicef shows that climate change is impacting almost every aspect of child health and well-being, from pregnancy to adolescence. Nowhere is the impact more visible than on children in Pakistan, which recorded the wettest April this year in over 60 years. Torrential and unseasonal rains swept through Pakistan, killing 144 people. In KP, 33 children died; 24 injured were children.In 2022, I saw first-hand how 10 years’ worth of rains were dumped on villages in southern Sindh, triggered by climate change. Five hundred children lost their lives due to unprecedented rainfall, the highest recorded since 1961. The rain swallowed 12-year-old Mehreen’s house and belongings. Together with her parents and four siblings, Mehreen lived in a makeshift shelter for months. I met hundreds of children like Mehreen, whose lives were upended by the floods.Despite aid efforts, almost 9.6 million children still needed humanitarian assistance in flood-affected areas in December 2023. Many children didn’t have enough food to eat or safe water to drink. Thousands were malnourished. Living and working in Pakistan, I am an eyewitness to the devastation caused by climate change. Year on year, children in Pakistan are caught in a vicious cycle of drought, water scarcity and floods. From the moment of conception until they grow into adulthood, the health and development of children’s brains, lungs, and immune systems are affected by their environment.Children are more likely to suffer from air pollution than adults, leading to life-threatening respiratory diseases. As a result, about 12 per cent of deaths in Pakis­tani children under five are due to air pollution. Children suffer unequally because of global warming. Poorer children simply don’t have the ability to cope like the privileged. In fact, the hardest-hit districts in Pakistan are amongst the most vulnerable. With an event like the 2022 floods, we could expect to see an 18pc increase in the prevalence of child marriage, which could erase five years of progress.I am also concerned. As a father of four children, I worry about their future and that of ev