UNICEF Accuses Wealthy Countries of Creating Unsafe Environment for Children

The logo of the United Nations Childrens Fund, UNICEF, is pictured at their German headquarters in Cologne, file. REUTERS/Ina Fassbender
The logo of the United Nations Childrens Fund, UNICEF, is pictured at their German headquarters in Cologne, file. REUTERS/Ina Fassbender
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UNICEF Accuses Wealthy Countries of Creating Unsafe Environment for Children

The logo of the United Nations Childrens Fund, UNICEF, is pictured at their German headquarters in Cologne, file. REUTERS/Ina Fassbender
The logo of the United Nations Childrens Fund, UNICEF, is pictured at their German headquarters in Cologne, file. REUTERS/Ina Fassbender

A new UNICEF report has revealed that children in the world’s wealthiest countries grow in a relatively healthy environment. However, most of those countries are disproportionally contributing to destroying the environment around the world.

Researchers at the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti concluded that if everybody in the world consumed resources at the rate people do in OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) and EU countries, the equivalent of 3.3 earths would be needed to keep up with consumption levels.
If everyone were to consume resources at the rate at which people in Canada, Luxembourg and the United States do, at least five earths would be needed, stated the UNICEF bureau in Cologne.

Germany too has a very high consumption rate on the global level; the equivalent of 2.9 earths would be needed to keep up with the Germans’ lifestyle.

The UNICEF report involved 39 countries in the OECD and EU. The researchers wanted to investigate how each country fare in providing healthy environments for children. The report investigates the environmental print including the countries’ contributions to the climate crisis, and the dumping of e-waste.
Spain, Ireland and Portugal top the list of countries providing healthy environments for all children and contributing less to the global environmental problems. Germany ranked ninth on the same list.

Some of the wealthiest countries, including Australia, Belgium, Canada and the United States, have a severe and widespread impact on global environments – based on CO2 emissions, e-waste and overall consumptions of resources per capita – and rank low overall on creating a healthy environment for children within their borders.

“Not only are the majority of rich countries failing to provide healthy environments for children within their borders, but they are also contributing to the destruction of children’s environments in other parts of the world. In some cases, we are seeing countries providing relatively healthy environments for children at home while being among the top contributors to pollutants that are destroying children’s environments abroad,” said Gunilla Olsson, director of UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti.



Türkiye Faces a ‘Very Risky Week’ for Wildfires as Flames Also Scorch Parts of Southeast Europe 

A general view of the burning forest during wildfires in the Harmancik district of Bursa, early on July 28, 2025. (AFP)
A general view of the burning forest during wildfires in the Harmancik district of Bursa, early on July 28, 2025. (AFP)
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Türkiye Faces a ‘Very Risky Week’ for Wildfires as Flames Also Scorch Parts of Southeast Europe 

A general view of the burning forest during wildfires in the Harmancik district of Bursa, early on July 28, 2025. (AFP)
A general view of the burning forest during wildfires in the Harmancik district of Bursa, early on July 28, 2025. (AFP)

Türkiye faced a "very risky week" for wildfires, an official said Monday, as blazes across parts of southeast Europe and the Balkans damaged homes and led to a huge firefighting operation that included evacuations. Nearly 100 people face prosecution over the fires in Türkiye.

Blazes erupted near Bursa, Türkiye’s fourth-largest city, over the weekend.

A wildfire to the northeast of Bursa had been largely extinguished, but one to the south of the city continued, although its intensity had been "significantly reduced," Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli told reporters in Ankara.

He also said that a fire that has been burning for six days in Karabuk, in northwest Türkiye, had also "been reduced in intensity," and a blaze in Karamanmaras in the south had largely been brought under control.

A wildfire also erupted Monday in forests outside the western port city of Izmir, where 11 aircraft were helping ground-based fire units and residents battle the blaze.

"We are in a very risky week," Yumakli said of the wildfires.

Blaze in Greece

In Greece, firefighters raced to tackle a wildfire that broke out Monday near a university campus close to the center of Athens.

Water-dropping planes and helicopters buzzed over the city center as they headed to the wildfire near the National Technical University of Athens, located in foothills ringing the Greek capital.

In all, 11 planes and eight helicopters were reinforcing 110 firefighters on the ground, the fire department said. Police announced road closures in the area, including to the only highway that circles the city.

A waning fire on the island of Kythera, which lies south of the Peloponnese, was reinvigorated by strong winds. Over the weekend, the blaze burned through around 10% of the small island’s land mass, triggering the evacuation of several villages.

Bulgaria assisted by Turkish firefighters

A Turkish firefighting team of 22 personnel and five vehicles crossed the northern border Monday to assist Bulgarian crews fight a large fire near the village of Lesovo, which was evacuated.

The blaze was one of hundreds across Bulgaria, the most severe of which was near the southwestern village of Strumyani. The Interior Ministry described the fire as "extremely large" and "widespread," leading to 200 firefighters being withdrawn because of the effects of high winds on the fire.

Several villages have been extensively damaged, with dozens of homes burned to the ground. By Monday, 269 fires had been extinguished in the previous 24 hours, the government said.

Other European Union countries have responded to Bulgaria’s requests for help, sending firefighting helicopters and planes.

In several instances, the cause of fires have been determined to be carelessness by people, such as open fires and discarded cigarettes.

Senior Interior Ministry official Miroslav Rashkov said that two people had been arrested for deliberately starting fires and would be prosecuted.

Volunteer firefighters killed Türkiye has been fighting severe wildfires since late June.

In Bursa, three volunteer firefighters were killed after their water tanker overturned, local news agency IHA reported. One died at the scene and the two others were pulled from the tanker and hospitalized but died late Sunday.

The volunteer crew from the province of Bolu was on its way to the village of Aglasan, northeast of Bursa, to combat a blaze when the vehicle fell into a ditch beside a rough forest track, the agency reported.

Separately, officials said earlier Sunday a firefighter died of a heart attack while battling a blaze. The fatalities brought the total deaths over the past month to 17, including 10 rescue volunteers and forestry workers killed Wednesday in a fire in the western city of Eskisehir.

The huge blazes around Bursa forced more than 3,500 people to flee their homes. While firefighting teams have contained the damage to a limited number of homes across affected areas in Türkiye, vast tracts of forest have been turned to ash.

Unseasonably high temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds have been fueling the wildfires. Türkiye and other parts of the eastern Mediterranean are experiencing record-breaking heat waves. The government had earlier declared disaster areas in two western provinces, Izmir and Bilecik.

Türkiye battled at least 44 separate fires Sunday, Yumakli said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday that 99 suspects faced prosecution in relation to the wildfires.

Albania fires

In Albania, firefighters battled at least six separate wildfires Monday, the defense ministry said. Two weeks of blazes have ravaged thousands of hectares, or acres, of forest in the Balkan country.

The areas most at risk were in the northeast, where inaccessible mountain plateaus had water-dropping aircraft carrying out the bulk of the firefighting.

In the country’s southern region, overnight winds ignited blazes in the municipalities of Delvine and Konispol and in the Himare district on the Adriatic coast, which suffered wildfires last week.

Authorities said that at least a dozen people were arrested over the weekend over the wildfires.