UNICEF’s report, 'Children’s vulnerabilities to climate change and disaster impacts in East Asia and the Pacific', released 14 November 2011, documents how climate change is putting million of children at risk in the region.

It notes that climate change is expected to worsen the plight of millions of children in East Asia and the Pacific who already lack food and clean water and are vulnerable to disease. It also says that some of the leading killers of children worldwide are highly sensitive to climate change.

“The scientific research indicates that existing vulnerabilities will likely be exacerbated by continued climate change,” said the report, which drew on findings from UNICEF-commissioned country studies in Indonesia, Kiribati, Mongolia, the Philippines and Vanuatu.

East Asia and the Pacific is home to a third of the world’s population - or around 2 billion people - and more than 25 percent of the world’s children, around 580 million. According to UNICEF, one in four children in the region is stunted due to poor nutrition.

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