Children at ‘existential risk’ from climate crisis, UK’s top paediatrician says

Children are experiencing significant mental health effects from the climate crisis, such as PTSD, depression and anxiety, Kingdon says. Photograph: Peter Marshall/Alamy

The climate crisis poses an “existential risk” to the health and wellbeing of all children and action to tackle it is needed immediately, Britain’s most senior paediatrician has said.

In a major intervention, Dr Camilla Kingdon, the president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), said every adolescent was at grave risk from the physical and mental effects of the climate crisis. Healthcare professionals were already seeing its impact first-hand, she added.