Air pollution is now the second-biggest killer of children under the age of five globally, a new report released Wednesday shows, with the climate emergency and the continued use of dirty energy sources inextricably linked to the growing risk faced by young children exposed to toxic fumes.

Each day, according to the State of Global Air report by the Health Effects Institute (HEI) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), nearly 2,000 children under the age of five die from the effects of air pollution, with children in the Global South most at risk.

In most African countries, children under five are 100 times more likely to die from asthma and other other effects of air pollution than their counterparts in high-income countries.

In 2021, according to the report, air pollution was second only to malnutrition as a risk factor for death among young children. For the general […]