Are climate change policies child sensitive?
This report was presented in 2019 by UNICEF. This organization examines issues with different consequences. The authors of this article are Johnny Pergamum, Christina Colon, and it is written with the goal of a better future for children.
The scientific community has sounded the alarm. Climate change is a global emergency and we have little more than a decade to undertake. Beyond that time, the risks of deadly drought, flooding, heatwaves, and poverty will significantly worsen for hundreds of millions of people. Children will continue to suffer the most under the impacts of climate change. With this in mind UNICEF has set out to examine current national climate policies/plans to ascertain how child-sensitive they are and provide recommendations on how to strengthen the focus on children’s rights, including actionable and measurable results for children.
this report assesses the current landscape of national climate change policies and plans and the degree to which these are child-sensitive.
children’s also more likely to succumb to vector and water borne diseases such as malaria, dengue and cholera, which are increasing. in prevalence with climate change, and are major causes of child mortality globally. In addition, evidence is mounting of the short- and long-term impacts of dealing with repeated disasters on children’s mental health. Disasters form part of what pediatricians call adverse childhood events (ACEs), that can lead to adverse health outcomes through toxic stress including earlier death, higher rates of cancer, and engaging in more risk-taking behavior.
Climate change affects a child’s ability to learn. Severe weather disasters destroy schools and transportation infrastructure. In addition, extreme heat can affect a child’s ability to learn.
Children require more food and water per unit of bodyweight than adults, rendering them particularly vulnerable to food and water scarcity. Droughts lead to crop failures and rising food prices, which for the poor mean food insecurity and nutritional deprivations that can have lifelong impacts. Around 600 million children or 1 in 4 children worldwide will be living in areas with extremely limited water resources by 2040.
As children will live longer, they will also bear the brunt of escalating harm and instability linked to rising temperatures in the years to come. A recent report by The Lancet highlights that if the world continues to produce the same amount of carbon emissions, a child
born today could be living in a world with an average temperature that is 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) warmer by their 71st birthday.
Climate-related displacement and migration brings increased vulnerability, including separation from family members, and violence exploitation and abuse. These risks are heightened when collecting food, water and firewood or when staying in temporary shelters or refugee camps. In addition, when a family is faced with economic hardship caused by climate change, studies suggest that the risk of child marriage can increase.
Furthermore, children are passionate about environmental issues and climate change. According to a UNICEF poll of children conducted in more than 60 countries, 77 per cent of children think that climate change is one of the most pressing issues for young people, and 98 per cent think that governments need to take urgent action to tackle this issue.
Children are acutely vulnerable to the impacts of air pollution, is a major contributing factor in the deaths of approximately 600,000 children under age 5 every year.
The report concludes, “Whether we succeed or not depends on our political will.”
