United Nations, Aug 13 - Young men and women are being adversely impacted by climate change and rising unemployment, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has said in a statement marking International Youth Day.

'Climate change,' he said, 'continues to compromise economies and threaten tremendous upheaval, saddling young people everywhere with an unjust ecological debt.'

'This is a potentially crushing burden,' he stressed Wednesday.

Ban also noted that youth unemployment would continue to rise because of the financial crisis, and the situation remained particularly grave in the developing world.

'For them, informal, insecure and low-wage employment is the norm, not the exception,' he said.