UNICEF: 4 million children pushed into poverty by Ukraine War

• The report assessed the economic impact of the Ukraine war by studying 22 countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
• The Ukraine War and consequent inflation have driven an additional 4 million children across the region into poverty. This is a 19 per cent increase since 2021.
• It found that 25 per cent of the population in the region is children. However, they account for nearly 40 per cent of the additional 10.4 million people who are suffering from poverty in 2022.
• Russia has experienced the highest increase in children living in poverty, with 2.8 million more children currently living in BPL households.
• Ukraine hosts the second-largest share of children living in poverty.
• The sharp spike in child poverty can result in 4,500 more children losing their lives before their first birthday and 1,17,000 more children dropping out of school this year.
• The economic crisis caused by the Ukraine war can create a risk of children facing abuse, exploitation, violence, and child marriage.
• Childhood poverty has long-term consequences since one in three children born and raised in poverty live their adult lives in poverty, resulting in an intergenerational cycle of hardship and deprivation.
• The issue of poverty is exacerbated by the government’s reduction in public expenditure, increased consumption of taxes, and austerity measures seeking to limit economic growth for a short period of time.
• The report recommends various measures to mitigate the child poverty crisis:
• Provide universal cash benefits for children and minimum income security for vulnerable families
• Expand social assistance to all families with children in need, including refugees
• Protect social welfare initiatives, especially those targeting vulnerable children and families
• Protect and support the delivery of health, nutrition, and social care services to pregnant women, infants, and pre-schoolers.
• Regulate prices of basic food items for families.

WHO: Lack of exercise to cost world $27 billion each year

• The report by the World Health Organization titled “Global status report on physical activity 2022” revealed that less than half of the 194 countries studied have a concrete national policy when it comes to promotion of physical activities.
• Of these, less than 40 per cent of them have functional policies.
• While nearly all countries have a system for monitoring adult exercise, only 75 per cent of them monitor adolescent activity. Less than 30 per cent monitor physical activities of children under the age of 5.
• The number of cases of diabetes, dementia and high blood pressure is expected to increase by the end of this decade and there will be a significant increase in expenses for addressing these issues.
• The report revealed that regular exercises can minimise the health risks by almost 30 per cent.
• It estimated that the lack of exercise and healthy physical activities can cost governments around the world more than 27 billion USD each year.
• It recommended the governments to actively encourage citizens to adopt a healthy lifestyle to stop the occurrence of these diseases in the future.
• In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare costs have surged across the globe and this trend is expected to continue in the future.
• Cost-effective actions like exercises minimises these expenses significantly.
• Despite the evidence of economic, social and environmental benefits associated with exercise and physical activities, governments have not increased focus on raising awareness about them to the general public.
• This is especially true in low-income countries where the standard of living is low and the healthcare is weak.

 Climate Transparency Report 2022

• The report, which assessed the climate actions by G20 countries found that the members’ support to produce fossil fuels have reached new heights at 64 billion USD in 2021, despite the worsening of climate crisis.
• Wider government fossil fuel subsidies, which shrunk to 147 billion USD in 2020, rose back again by 29 per cent to 190 billion USD in 2021.
• The subsidies continue to spike into 2022, partly because of the Russian war in Ukraine causing inflation in energy sector, which has increased profits of energy manufacturers.
• G20 members with highest total subsidies for fossil fuels are China, Indonesia and the United Kingdom.
• These subsidies are contributing to the global temperature surpassing the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming limit agreed under the Paris Agreement and reaffirmed in 2021 at the COP26 held in Glasgow.
• The report also found that energy emissions also rebounded across G20 countries by 5.9 per cent last year, returning back to the pre-pandemic levels despite the warning from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that recommended reducing emissions by 50 per cent to keep the 1.5 degree warming levels.
• In 2021, emissions in power and real estate sector were higher than pre-pandemic levels. The per capita emissions in these sectors in China and Turkey are currently higher than 2019 levels.
• The share of renewables in power generation mix has increased in all G20 countries between 2016 and 2021.
• Countries with highest increase in renewable energy share are the United Kingdom (67 per cent), Japan (48 per cent) and Mexico (40 per cent).
• The lowest increase was seen in Russia (16 per cent) and Italy (14 per cent).
• India experienced an income loss of 159 billion USD (5.4 per cent of its GDP) in service, manufacturing, agriculture and construction sectors because of extreme heat in 2021.
• The heat exposure in India caused a loss of 167 billion potential labour hours – a 39 per cent increase from 1990-1999.
• The labour productivity in the country is expected to decline by 5 per cent from 1986-2006 level if global temperature increase by 1.5°C.

International Current Affairs October 3rd Week 2022