A quarter of a million kids might lose their lives next year due to adverse effects of climate change, warns a charity.

Save the Children insists that figure could rise to more than 400,000 by 2030.

Its report ‘Feeling the Heat’ claims that climate change is the biggest global health threat to children in the 21st century.

Experts believe that almost 175 million children per year are likely to suffer the consequences of natural disasters like cyclones, droughts and floods by 2030.

They further say that more than 900 million children in the next generation will be affected by water shortages and 160 million more children will be at risk of catching malaria - one of the biggest killers of children under five - as it spreads to new parts of the world.

Ultravox star Midge Ure, a Save the Children ambassador, recently returned to Ethiopia 25 years after the 1984 famine, and created Band Aid with Bob Geldof.

"Climate change is no longer a distant, futuristic scenario, but an immediate threat," the Daily Express quoted him as saying.

"We've all heard about the East African food crisis but I've been in Ethiopia seeing first hand the impact it's having on children's lives.

"I've seen how vulnerable children are to the effects of climate change," he added.