Yet despite such clear evidence, the specific needs of young children remain largely ignored in the climate-change discourse and major international agreements relating to climate change, such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) agreements, the Paris Agreement’s nationally determined contributions (NDCs), and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. To date, there has been little recognition of the disproportionate impact experienced by young children and the specific support they require to mitigate and adapt to climate change and environmental degradation.

Climate financing has also not addressed this disproportionate impact. An assessment of climate financing from key multilateral climate funds serving the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement found that out of all the money given by multilateral climate funds for climate-related projects over a 17-year period, only a small portion (2.4%) met the requirements for addressing the distinct and heightened risks faced by children, strengthening the resilience of child-critical social services, and empowering children as agents of change (Children’s Environmental Rights Initiative, 2023). That funding amounted to only US$1.2 billion.

Yet more than 50 years of research and practice conclusively show the power of investing in and providing support to the youngest children and their caregiving networks. These investments are a down payment on our future. We know climate-smart early childhood development (ECD) investments and services will have significant benefits for the most vulnerable young children and families:

• Return on investment: Quality ECD programming is one of the best investments a country can make, by laying the foundation for future success and yielding improved outcomes in health, education, and economic development. (Black, Behrman, Daelmans, et al., 2021; Heckman, 2012).  Specifically, investments in climate adaptation can result in up to US$10 in net economic gains for every dollar spent (UNICEF and Global Center on Adaptation, 2022).
• Increased resilience with access to nurturing care: ECD-focused climate actions can ensure good health, adequate nutrition, safety and security, responsive caregiving, and richer learning opportunities while reducing exposure to climate and environmental hazards. For instance, an estimated 26% of deaths in children under five could be prevented by addressing environmental risks (UNICEF, 2021).
• The fulfillment of children’s rights for a sustainable and peaceful future: By ensuring that every young child has the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, we can enable a strong foundation for a child to survive, grow, and thrive (UNICEF, 2021).
• Environmental benefits by amplifying children’s agency: As young children are empowered, a sense of stewardship toward the environment can be fostered among future generations to make environmentally conscious decisions while leading a just green transition toward a sustainable future (Astuto and Ruck, 2010).

Access to a clean, safe, and secure environment is foundational for all children to survive, thrive, and live in dignity. This right was reinforced and advanced in UN General Comment No. 26 on children’s rights and the environment with a special focus on climate change (UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2023). Now we must protect this right.

In your role as President-designate of COP 28, we call on you to be a champion on behalf of the world’s youngest children and work with COP stakeholders to take the following actions:

• Ensure that global and national climate-sensitive policies, systems, and action plans address the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on the youngest children and leverage nurturing care platforms to enhance preparedness, resilience, and adaptation skills for young children, their families, and communities.
• Distinguish children from youth and ensure that climate action plans explicitly address, budget for, coordinate efforts in, and monitor progress toward climate-smart solutions for young children’s development.
• Build evidence through research and evaluation to inform policy and investment decisions and raise awareness of the central role of ECD investments in protecting young children from the lifelong impacts of climate change. Ensure that public investments and decisions on climate change are evidence-based and climate-smart.
• Empower and finance civil society to implement locally-led and child-sensitive actions on climate change, ensuring that the voices of the youngest children—as future custodians of our planet—are heard, both directly and indirectly through their parents, caregivers, and communities, and integrated into early learning interventions.
• Invest in greening education and early childhood systems to build climate resilience within children, teachers, parents, caregivers, schools, and communities so they are better equipped to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change.

The world’s youngest children—and their ability to reach their full potential—are counting on the decisions that are made at COP 28. We hope, through your leadership and the commitments made by governments, we can set a course for a more climate-resilient world for the benefit of all children—their health, well-being, lives, and livelihoods—everywhere.