The climate crisis is a child’s rights crisis at its core. Protecting the youngest children across the globe is integral to the climate crisis response.

The youngest children all over the world are being exposed to the impacts and stresses of extreme weather events and environmental hazards. Despite being the most vulnerable and most adversely affected, they possess the fewest resources to respond to and cope with climate change (Joining Forces Alliance, 2020).

The right to clean, safe and secure environments is foundational for all children not only to survive, but also to thrive and to live in dignity (United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2020). Therefore, the environmental and climate crises are a significant challenge to fulfilling the rights of all children. Environmental changes do not act in silos. Global environmental changes, such as climate change, land use change, biodiversity loss, and ocean acidification act together to affect health and livelihoods. The concern is the potential for negative, synergistic interactions on health (Whitmee et al., 2015), and we know that the greatest impact is on children’s growth and development, as well as the well-being of pregnant women and foetuses (WHO, 2019).

In August 2021, the world’s leading authority on climate science, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, which stressed that ‘Climate change is widespread, rapid, and intensifying’, triggered by greenhouse gas emissions, and that its impacts are increasingly and globally catastrophic. The IPCC report indicates that by 2050, there will be huge adverse effects on billions of people across the world, if the current inadequate levels of climate change continue. This means that all young children will likely face multiple climate-health related threats during their lifetime.

Millions of children born in the last year will face, on average, 2-7 times more extreme weather events than their grandparents. This includes more frequent heatwaves, floods, droughts, crop failures and wildfires (Save the Children, 2021).

It is time to act urgently and build global awareness on the impact of climate change on the youngest children. Early childhood development (ECD) must be part of climate policy discussions, countries most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions need to be held accountable, and we must focus on supporting marginalised children and families most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

Almost every child on earth, according to UNICEF (2021), is exposed to hazards related to climate change. These natural disasters have intensified child poverty and vulnerability and is directly causing migration and displacement due to extreme weather events (Save the Children, 2021).  This has been further exacerbated by overlapping crises of conflict, the COVID-19 pandemic, and other emerging and re-emerging diseases.

Climate-related disasters wreak havoc on families and communities, increasing toxic stress among young children, which harms their brain development. The loss of livelihoods and increased food insecurity increases child malnutrition and impacts on caregivers’ abilities to keep their children in early childhood education or support their children’s healthcare.

Climate change can also indirectly heighten the risk of conflict by intensifying existing social, economic, and environmental factors, and countries are less able to cope with climate change because their capacity to adapt is reduced by conflict. Children living in conflict areas are extremely vulnerable to the climate crisis and often disregarded by climate action (ICRC, 2020). As rural communities face climate stress, families relocate to informal urban settlements, which increases children’s exposure to violence, abuse, and exploitation, including child labour, extreme poverty, and reduced access to critical health, education, and psychosocial support services.

When ranked by income, the richest half of nations are responsible for 86 percent of global CO2 emissions; the lower half, just 14 percent. The poorest countries, for only 0.5 percent (Ritchie, 2018). Yet it is the children from middle- and lower-income countries who shoulder the severest impacts of the changing climate and possess the least resources to respond to, and cope with, these impacts.

In October 2021, in a historic ruling on the harmful effects of climate change on children’s rights, the UN Child Rights Committee has found that a State party can be held responsible for the negative impact of its carbon emissions on the rights of children both within and outside its territory.

We must act now and put young children at the centre of climate change action, creating a platform to raise the voices of the youngest children on the issue and respond accordingly. This global call to action builds on the Asia-Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood’s 2019 Ha Noi Call to Action and the 2021 Asia-Pacific Regional Call to Action, which advocate for multi-sectoral approaches and partnerships to promote the safety and well-being of young children and their families against environmental and climate risk factors. They emphasize the need to look closely at the interconnecting impacts of unhealthy environments and climate change on the health, growth, wellbeing, development, and rights of young children.

Join us! Early childhood development must be at the forefront of the fight against climate change. Urgent action is needed now to realise the rights of the youngest children and protect their future against the climate crisis that they will so unfairly have to face.

 

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