The report ‘The climate-changed child‘ builds on 2021’s Children’s Climate Risk Index and examines water scarcity and water vulnerability along with the critical actions the international community must take at COP28 to protect children against climate change.

The climate crisis is not just changing the planet – it is changing children. From the moment of conception until they grow into adulthood, the health and development of children’s brains, lungs, immune systems and other critical functions are affected by the environment they grow up in. Geography does not protect against climate change; it is affecting children everywhere – even in in high-income countries – and the world is not doing nearly enough to protect them. Despite their unique vulnerability, children have been either ignored or largely disregarded in the response to climate change. Only 2.4 per cent of climate finance from key multilateral climate funds support projects incorporating child-responsive activities.

As the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has pointed out, taking their rights and their views into account would lead to more ambitious and effective policies on environmental protection. And yet children have almost no formal role in climate policy and decisions, and they are rarely considered in existing climate adaptation, mitigation or finance plans and actions. Adapting essential services, compensation for loss and damage, disaster risk reduction, early warning and increased investment in decarbonization can make the difference between life and death, a future or disaster, for the planet’s children. Governments have an obligation to ensure a clean, healthy and sustainable environment to protect and fulfil children’s rights. It is our collective responsibility to put children at the centre of urgent climate action to ensure that all – including the most vulnerable – have a liveable future.

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Climate change is changing children

Unicef: een op de drie kinderen kampt wereldwijd met extreme waterschaarste