Climate change poses significant risks to children’s health and well-being
Climate change is a direct threat to children’s well-being. In many countries, rising sea levels and temperatures are already putting stress on the ecosystem – affecting where people can safely live and grow food. And while children are the least responsible for the changing environment, they are likely to bear the greatest burden now and in future.
IPCC reports show that if levels of greenhouse gases continue to rise, global temperatures will also increase leading to more extreme weather events in many parts of the world. The UNICEF Children’s Climate Risk Index showed that we are crossing key boundaries in the Earth’s natural system, including climate change, biodiversity loss, and increasing levels of pollution in the air, soil, water and oceans. As a result, the climate crisis is creating a child’s rights crisis. It is creating a water crisis, a health crisis, an education crisis, a protection crisis and a participation crisis.
Different regions face different combinations of climate and environmental hazard exposure factors. But it is where these hazards overlap that is particularly worrying. Over 99 per cent of children globally are currently exposed to at least one of the climate and environmental hazards, shocks and stresses such as water scarcity, various types of flooding, disease vector exposure and air pollution. Exposure to overlapping hazards can trigger, reinforce and magnify each other, making it harder for children and their families to recover and build resilience. These cumulative shocks also exacerbate inequalities, pushing poorer children further into poverty.
Changing environments will worsen the effects of diseases on children, particularly the youngest and most vulnerable
Rising temperatures and other environmental changes will make diseases we have not yet mitigated more dangerous. The habitat for mosquitoes transmitting malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever is projected to almost certainly expand, thus taking a further toll on communities already suffering greatly from these diseases. Dengue fever is the most rapidly spreading mosquito-borne arboviral disease in the world. It is estimated that 3.9 billion people are potentially exposed to it, and children are especially vulnerable.
Diseases such as malaria are more likely to affect rural areas, but have the potential to spread to urban settings, which are already suffering from rising levels of air pollution. In 2019 about two billion children lived in areas where air pollution levels exceed the baseline standards of 10 μg/m3 set by the World Health Organization.[1] It is also associated with increasing rates of asthma and other respiratory diseases such as pneumonia. Some studies have shown that air pollution might also affect cognitive development, which may pose long-term damage to children’s health and well-being. Pregnant mothers are particularly at risk as studies show an association between high levels of air pollution and fetal loss, pre-term delivery, lower birthweight and infertility.
A decrease in food security threatens children’s development and survival, especially in places already struggling with this risk
Food insecurity has long been a reality in many communities around the world. The risks faced by these and other communities not yet affected is likely to be exacerbated by a changing climate. Warmer temperatures are predicted to lead to lower crop yields, placing further stress on the global food supply. For children, even brief periods of undernutrition means a greater risk of dying from common infections and lifelong damage to their development. Food insecurity also threatens maternal health, which is closely related to a child’s survival and thriving in the early years. In 2020, nearly one in five – or 149 million children under 5 – were stunted, and 45 million suffered from wasting, according to the 2021 Joint Malnutrition Estimates from UNICEF, WHO and the World Bank.
In addition, undernourished children will be hit harder by climate change, as environmental stressors place agricultural systems under increased pressure. Nearly 34 million more people, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, are expected to be pushed into extreme poverty due to increased food prices. Children who lack adequate nutrition will bear some of the greatest burdens of climate change, with existing undernutrition and poor maternal health as key indicators of a child’s climate vulnerability.
As safe drinking water and sanitation become increasingly scarce, progress made in child survival may be reversed
Access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services is vital to preventing the spread of diseases. Despite progress 2 billion people still lack safely managed drinking water, 3.6 billion lack safely managed sanitation and 2.3 billion lack basic hygiene services. As a result, each year, 400,000 children under age 5 – or 1000 each day – continue to die from diseases associated with inadequate WASH. The challenge of extending WASH services to children in need is further compounded by water scarcity, floods and cyclones – all exacerbated by the climate crisis. UNICEF projections show that by 2040, one in four children under 18 – some 600 million people – will be living in areas of extremely high-water stress.
There are also gender dimensions as a result of existing inequities in access to WASH that could make girls and women more vulnerable to climate and environmental hazards. For example, in Africa, water fetching duties are mainly placed on girls and women. In Ethiopia, about 20 per cent of girls miss school to assist with water fetching as compared to only 5 per cent of boys. Moreover, in times of water scarcity, girls and women are forced to travel longer distances to fetch water, which exposes them to increased risks of gender-based violence
Virtually every child on earth is already affected by climate change, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. Action is falling short, which means that the impacts upon children and young people will worsen in the coming decades. Children will bear the brunt of impacts, particularly those in communities that have contributed the least to global greenhouse gas emissions. The best investments we can make for children now are to ensure the services they need to survive, grow and thrive are resilient to climate and environmental shocks and to support them with the education and skills they will need to adapt and create a green transition and better world. UNICEF will make this the focus of our on-the-ground implementation and advocacy in the over 190 countries and territories in which we work — every child deserves a liveable planet.
Footnote
1. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2020, 54, 13, 7879–7890. Publication Date:June 3, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c01764