ABDULLAH HEL BUBUN

No child among Bangladesh’s 59 million children is growing up safe from climate hazards, and nearly nine in ten face three or more such hazards at the same time, according to Unicef’s Children’s Climate Risk Report, published on June 16.

The report places Bangladesh among the four worst countries in the world for children’s exposure to climate hazards, with only Myanmar, Pakistan and Vietnam facing a worse combined exposure profile.

Unicef’s report, its most detailed assessment to date, examined children’s exposure across 186 countries to eight climate hazards -- riverine flooding, coastal flooding, droughts, extreme heat, heatwaves, tropical storms, fires, sand and dust storms.

It also measured exposure to air pollution and vector-borne diseases, both of which are intensifying due to climate change.

Bangladesh ranked among the worst countries for children’s exposure to riverine flooding and droughts. It was also the third worst-ranked country for coastal flooding, air pollution and tropical storms.

Droughts, both agricultural and meteorological, are estimated to affect about 98 percent of children in Bangladesh, or roughly 57.8 million.

Exposure to air pollution is nearly as widespread. More than 91 percent of children are at risk from tropical storms, while over 82 percent are affected by extreme hot days, defined as days with a “feels-like” temperature above 35 degrees Celsius.

Riverine flooding affects about 54 percent of all children in Bangladesh.

What makes Bangladesh’s situation particularly acute is not any single hazard, but the convergence of several climate hazards.

According to the report, 53 million children -- almost 89.5 percent of the country’s under-18 population -- are simultaneously exposed to at least three hazards.

This convergence has disproportionate consequences for children, whose developing bodies are less equipped to cope with heat stress, polluted air and waterborne diseases.

Displacement caused by floods or storms Of

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