Children on the front line
This new report published by the the UNICEF Office of Research details both the accelerating global threats to children, as well as the urgent need to incorporate a comprehensive child rights approach, including directly involving children, in adaptation and mitigation efforts.
It estimates that over the next decade, in South Asia and Africa alone, 175 million children will be hit by climate-related disasters Children and young people represent 30 per cent of the world’s population. Not only do they represent the largest group of people currently affected by climate change, but they are also more vulnerable than adults to its harmful effects.
Children and young people also constitute the generation that will be required to deal with the future impacts of climate change and that will have to deliver the very deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions that will be essential in the coming decades. Yet they are a constituency that has traditionally been ignored when it comes to high-level climate negotiations.