The Malaysian Insight

CHILDREN especially those from indigenous groups and the urban poor will suffer more from the impact of climate and environmental risks in Malaysia, a joint study by Unicef and local universities has found.

Stateless children are also in this group who will face physical and physiological challenges, according to the report “Impact of Climate Change on Children: A Malaysian Perspective’ (ICCC) by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and the Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS).

Compared to adults, children will be less resilient to the effects of climate change such as floods and droughts, and also air pollution such as the haze.

According to Unicef’s Children’s Climate Risk Index, Malaysia is also not well-placed to protect children from the impact of climate change, ranking 61st place among the least performing countries on the matter.

Case studies were conducted in three different communities: children living in Pulau Gaya, Sabah, the underprivileged indigenous in Pos Kuala Mu, Sungai Siput, Perak, and the urban poor in the Sungai Bonus People’s Housing Project (PPR) in Kuala Lumpur.

Lead researcher of the study, Dr Mazrura Sahani, said extreme weather events in these areas have already affected the children’s education and wellbeing.

“We have shown that climate change is happening in Malaysia with extreme weather conditions,” the UKM professor of environmental and occupational epidemiology said during the online launch of the report today.  

“We need to protect the children, who are our next generation. Marginalised children are triple-affected by these events.”

Her research has found that only 58% of children living in Pos Kuala Mu attend school when landslides and flash floods cut off their road access. 

In Pulau Gaya, Sabah, there is a 41% decline in school attendance due to safety concerns in commuting to school via boats during the rainy season. 

And in the Sungai Bonus PPR, 29% of children do not get enough to eat or suffer food insecurity due to fluctuating food prices caused by climate change.

Issmail Nnafie, innovation and sustainability programme specialist from Unicef Malaysia, spoke about the haze season that Malaysia suffers almost annually, and said severe episodes of haze disrupted children’s education and well-being. 

“In September 2019, nearly 2,500 schools were closed across Malaysia, affecting at least 1.7 million pupils. 

“The schools were closed, but the children may be at home or on the street still exposed to air pollution. So they were missing from school and were not protected,” he said.

The ICCC report also noted that since children have a higher breathing rate than adults, they thus take in a relatively higher proportion of pollutants. 

This prevents their lungs, brains, physical defences and immune systems from becoming fully developed, making them more susceptible to pollutants.

The report also said that children under age five bear 88% of the burden of disease from climate change, environmental degradation and pollution.

The study’s team of researchers urged policy makers to set child-sensitive climate change and environmental policies in Malaysia.

There are four areas to be addressed: water-borne diseases linked to floods, vector-borne diseases like malaria and dengue, health problems linked to air pollution and health risks from exposure to chemicals, hazardous substances and waste. 

According to a National Youth Climate Change survey by Unicef and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) last year, 92% of youth in Malaysia think that climate change is a crisis.

The survey with a total of 1,393 respondents found that nine in 10 youths in Malaysia said they experienced environment and climate-related effects in the last three years. 

In another survey of 1,101 young Malaysians by market research YouGov in 2019, 64% stated they were concerned about climate change. 

Only 5% believed that Malaysia is prepared to face it. – October 29, 2021.