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The climate crisis is the greatest human rights and children's rights challenge of this generation, and it is already having a devastating impact on the well-being of the world's children. Understanding where and how children are particularly vulnerable to this crisis is essential to our response.
in response. The Children's Climate Risk Index provides the first comprehensive view of children's exposure and vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, to help prioritize action for those most at risk and, ultimately, to ensure that today's children inherit a livable planet.
Foreword
Three years ago, a single child's demonstration marked the start of Future Fridays. In the space of a few months, this lone protester has become more than a million in over 120 countries. Young people from all corners of the globe unite in a global call to save the planet and their future.
Climate change is the greatest threat to children and young people around the world. We've known this for some time - based on what science has told us, what stories we've heard from around the world, and what we've done to save children and young people.
but today we have the first analysis of climate risk from the most important point of view in this crisis: our own.
UNICEF's Climate Risk Index for Children reveals that one billion children are at “extremely high” risk from the effects of climate change. That's almost half of all children. And that's what's happening today.
Children bear the heaviest burden of climate change. Not only are they more vulnerable than adults to extreme weather conditions, toxic hazards and related diseases, but the planet is becoming a more dangerous place to live.
Increasingly catastrophic droughts, fires and storms are set to worsen as our planet continues to warm. Important water supply systems will collapse, and entire cities will succumb to destructive floods.
Climate change is the greatest threat facing the world's children and young people. That's why we're rising up too.
In Bangladesh, exposure to cyclones, droughts, floods, salinity and river erosion has pushed Tahsin
to take action. It raises awareness of waterways choked with plastic waste and the dangerous erosion of riverbanks.
In the Philippines, Mitzi guides young people in the fight for climate justice. Recently, she spent two dark days in a house without electricity, separated from her family during a typhoon, not knowing whether her home had been destroyed by the floods or whether her mother was safe.
In Zimbabwe, Nkosi wants to know how he can be expected to go to school “in the hot sun”. He has been a climate campaigner for years, but fears his efforts will be in vain.
We all share this fear. Governments have said they will protect us, but they are not doing nearly enough to prevent climate change from devastating our lives and our future.
In 1989, virtually every country in the world recognized that children have the right to live in a clean environment, breathe clean air, drink clean water and eat clean food.
to eat. Children also have the right to learn and relax.
and play. But with their lack of action on climate change, the world's leaders are failing to deliver on this promise.
Our futures are destroyed, our rights violated and our appeals ignored. Instead of going to school or living in a safe home, children suffer from famine, conflict and deadly diseases due to climatic and environmental shocks. These shocks plunge the world's youngest, poorest and most vulnerable children into even greater poverty, making it harder for them to recover the next time a cyclone hits or a forest fire breaks out.
The Climate Risk Index for Children ranks countries according to children's vulnerability to environmental stress and extreme weather events. It reveals that children in the Central African Republic, Chad, Nigeria, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau are the most exposed.
Yet these countries are among those least responsible for the emergence of the problem.
33 very high-risk countries collectively emit just 9 % of global CO2 emissions. In contrast, the ten highest emitting countries collectively account for almost 70 % of global emissions. Only one of these countries is classified as extremely high-risk in the index.
We cannot allow this injustice to continue. It is immoral that the countries that have done least should suffer first and most.
Governments and businesses must urgently address the root causes of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Agreement.
The report comes ahead of the November 2021 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. There is still time for countries to commit to avoiding the worst, including setting appropriate carbon budgets to meet the Paris targets and, ultimately, taking the drastic measures needed to shift the economy away from fossil fuels.
Meanwhile, we also need to find solutions to build resilience and help those who are already struggling. This crisis is happening now.
We will strike again and again until decision-makers change the course of humanity. We have a duty to raise public awareness and demand urgent action. What began on a Friday three years ago has continued every Friday since, including today. We have a
we have a duty to each other and to the children who are too small to hold a pen or a microphone, but who will face even greater challenges than our own. Young climate activist movements will continue to develop, grow and fight for what is right because we have no other choice.
We need to know where we stand, treat climate change as the crisis that it is, and act with the urgency necessary to ensure that today's children inherit a livable planet.
Signed,
Adriana Calderón, Mexico,
Farzana Faruk Jhumu, Bangladesh, Eric Njuguna, Kenya,
Greta Thunberg, Sweden.
FRIDAY FOR THE FUTURE
Image and text copyright: UNICEF
