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

Exclusive: Physical and mental impact on young people needs immediate action, Dr Camilla Kingdon says

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.