Child health specialists are urging the Government to improve its housing insulation programme in order to help shield young people from the worst effects of global warming.
A report by the Climate and Health Group in the latest Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health describes climate change as a real and urgent threat to New Zealand children's well-being.
The authors say that the country is failing to respond adequately to climate change, and that children are at greater risk than adults during extreme weather.
One of the paper's authors, Dr Rhys Jones, says there would be fewer cases of childhood asthma and chest infections if housing insulation policies were enhanced.
