Placing the needs of children at the heart of climate policies

Many of us realize that we are experiencing increasingly severe climate change impacts, but we also know they are definitely not the worst that this planet or humankind will ever experience.??

For children, who are physically and physiologically more vulnerable than adults to climate and environmental shocks and are more at risk of death from diseases exacerbated by climate change, the crisis is an existential threat to their survival, development and well-being. And it’s already happening.?

One billion children, nearly half of the world’s children today, live in extremely high-risk countries, as defined by 联合国儿童基金会 in The Climate Crisis Is a Child Rights Crisis. Millions are exposed to climate hazards such as heatwaves, cyclones, water scarcity and riverine and coastal flooding. These children have their whole life ahead of them. Any deprivation as a result of climate change at a young age can result in a lifetime of lost opportunity.??

Change doesn’t come easily, and definitely not overnight, but we have to start somewhere, and we need to start now. So what can motivate us to make decisions that will transform our current ways of living and enable us to leave better conditions for our children??

Governments’ considerations for children through NDCs??

Countries have begun to progressively undertake more ambitious climate policies, but current Nationally Determined Contributions, as a whole, fall short of integrating child sensitivities.??

More than 80 per cent of the recently submitted Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)[i] make commitments to further curbing total emissions compared to the ones submitted before.?NDCs are essentially the pledges made by countries detailing the actions they will take to meet the Paris Agreement goals for limiting the threat of climate change.?

A child-sensitive NDC is one with policies, plans and actions that uphold children’s rights and embrace their participation and role as stakeholders and drivers of change. These ensure that child-critical social services, such as those related to disaster risk reduction, education, energy, food security and nutrition, health, information systems, social protection and water and sanitation, are programmed to be able to adapt to this changing world and not disrupted by climate and disaster risk.?

UNICEF is measuring those considerations?

One of the ways we can determine the extent to which NDCs are child-sensitive is through an indicator-based method. Since 2019, UNICEF has been using a set of specific indicators to evaluate the child-sensitivity of NDCs by asking, for example: Are children and young people’s opinions and viewpoints included in the plans? Are their particular needs and vulnerabilities taken into consideration? An NDC is considered child-sensitive if it meets three or more of the following criteria:??

1. It makes explicit and meaningful reference to children and youth,??
2. It considers children and young people as rights holders and includes meaningful references to children’s rights or intergenerational justice and equity,??
3. It addresses the specific risks and vulnerabilities of children by including child-sensitive multi-sectoral commitments, and/or??
4. It identifies inclusiveness and the recognition of children and young people as important stakeholders in climate action.[ii]?

According to the UNICEF NDCs for Every Child Data Platform, fewer than half of the NDCs globally are child-sensitive.??

Additionally, dedicated funds that address a changing climate are the ‘quantum leap’ needed to limit temperature rises of 1.5°C and to protect communities from the impacts of climate change; yet global climate finance commitments remain unfulfilled and woefully inadequate, particularly those seeking to address the disproportionate impact on children.[iii]??

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A vision of the way forward?

The best investments for children and young people are those that enhance the resilience of child-critical social services in the countries and areas where they are needed most. Investing heavily in adaptation and resilience of social services for the 4.2 billion children born over the next three decades will be critical in determining their survival and well-being in the face of climate change.[v]??

For this, it is essential to understand children’s unique vulnerability to then properly anticipate the full extent of the impacts of climate and environmental hazards. Governments in nations at high risk for climate change can then benefit from knowing where to target programmes to reach the most vulnerable children and young people in their climate planning by using baselines for child sensitivity in NDCs.??

Crucially, promises still need to be followed up by solutions and action. These include initiatives to enhance youth engagement, resilience, and sustainability by, for example, promoting green skills training, climate-resilient systems, sustainable agriculture, circular economy jobs, early warning systems and infrastructure improvements across key sectors.??

In addition, we need to scale up research and innovation in sectors that can shield children and young people from climate risks, and actively engage children in policymaking.??

Ultimately, the guiding question is: how can we reverse the rise of global temperatures while simultaneously creating systems that acknowledge the impacts of a changing climate and ensure children survive and prosper in that new reality??

This world and its future belong to the children and youth. It is time we provide all children and young people the education, inclusion and resilience they need and empower them as agents of change and to give them the best possible chance of addressing a crisis that has already arrived. And for that, we need to make sure that what we do today makes their tomorrows better.?

Written by UNICEF Fellow Nazifa Rafa with support from Amy Wickham , Larissa Demel , Sean Storr , and Yuv Sungkur .??

[i] https://www.climatewatchdata.org/2020-ndc-tracker, updated January 2024.

[ii] UNICEF, Child-sensitive climate policies for every child, 2022, https://www.unicef.org/media/130081/file/Child-Sensitive%20Climate%20Policies%20For%20Every%20Child.pdf.?

[iii] UNICEF, Falling short: Addressing the climate finance gap for children, 2024, https://www.unicef.org/reports/addressing-climate-finance-gap-children.?

[iv] UNICEF, NDCs for every child Data Platform Global Dashboard, https://ndcsforeverychild.unicef.org/post/b134e066-87d5-48ea-87c9-1848e380c46a, accessed 15 Sept 2024. Please note that the boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.?

[v] UNICEF, The climate crisis is a child rights crisis: Introducing The Children’s Climate Risk Index, 2021, https://www.unicef.org/media/105376/file/UNICEF-climate-crisis-child-rights-crisis.pdf.??