A closer look at ECD and Climate Change

Climate change directly impacts children’s growth and development. The impact on young children, pregnant mothers and fetuses is a huge cause for alarm, as they are the groups most affected by climate change and environmental issues[1]:

• An estimated 710 million children[2]  live in the 45 countries that are at the highest risk of suffering the impact of climate change. Children will be affected by a mixture of food shortages, diseases, droughts and rising sea levels. [3]
• Young children are more vulnerable to physical environmental influences because their brain development is most rapid in the early years and the quality of brain development is moderated by interactions with the environment.[4] Disasters, increased conflict, migration, etc. because of climate change leads to increased adversity and toxic stress, which harms the brain development. Toxic stress is excessive or prolonged activation of stress response systems in the body and brain, and this neurological impact results in lifelong consequences of children’s educational achievement, economic success and social equity. [5]
• In 2017, 68.5 million people were forcibly displaced, more than at any point in human history. Approximately one-third of these were forced to move by “sudden onset” weather events—flooding, forest fires after droughts, and intensified storms. Climate change is contributing huge population of displaced peoples, many of which are young children and their caregivers. [6]
• It is estimated that approximately 90% of climate-related health effects will be borne by children under five years of age.
• Almost 17 million babies under the age of one live in areas where air pollution is at least six times higher than international limits, causing them to breathe toxic air and potentially putting their brain development at risk, including risk of noncommunicable diseases, respiratory diseases, infectious diseases and developmental delays that can reduce their lifelong cognitive, socio-emotional and physical potential.[7]  More than three-quarters of these young children – 12 million – live in South Asia.
• Air pollution is a major contributing factor in the deaths of close to 600,000 children under five every year, making it the second leading cause of death for this age group.
• Children’s lung growth can be stunted by 12.5 percent from roadside air pollution.[8]
• As well as outdoor air pollution, household air pollution was responsible for 3.8 million premature deaths in 2016, including over 400 thousand deaths of children under 5 years of age. The main source of household air pollution is the use of kerosene and solid fuels such as wood in polluting stoves, open fires and lamps.[9]
• Pneumonia remains the leading infectious cause of death among children under 5, killing approximately 2,400 children a day. Child deaths caused by Pneumonia are strongly linked to undernutrition, lack of safe water and sanitation, indoor air pollution and inadequate access to health care ─ all challenges that are exacerbated by climate change.
• 160 million children live in high drought- severity zones.
• 500 million children (almost a quarter of the world’s child population) live in extremely high flood occurrence zones.
• Children are the most vulnerable to diseases such as Malaria and Dengue fever which will become more widespread as a result of climate change.

More than a billion children live in cities. The lack of clean and safe spaces negatively impacts a child’s early development opportunities. It increases harmful exposure to air pollution and environmental toxins in city spaces such as playgrounds next to busy roads.  Cities are not being designed to support young children and caregivers, where outdoor spaces such as playgrounds, preschools and roads are disabling safe movement, play and social interaction.

More research is needed to fully understand the impact of climate change on different areas of the nurturing care framework. The ECD sector needs to clearly articulate the impact of the climate crisis on young children’s development; and ECD programs need to incorporate strategies to address these in order to foster an enabling environment to nurturing care in the face of climate change. They need to better support young children and their families’ resilience and adaptation, so they can continue to foster their children’s development through integrated services. Some activities however which address challenges of climate change could include:

Programming

• Awareness raising activities for young children and families about the impacts of climate change and the role young children and families can play to protect the planet.
• Celebrate and do activities with young children on days such as Earth days.
• Provide opportunities for children to play in quality, natural environments (or, at least, in natural outdoor settings) where they can have deep engagement with the natural world.
• Start an environmental club for young children at a ECD center, school or community.
• Integrate environmental education into science classes – through outdoor adventures etc…
• Model ‘green housekeeping’ practices in ECD spaces and school such as recycling, reducing waste, water and energy consumption and composting.
• Install solar panels on ECD centers or schools.
• Build the capacity of vulnerable people’s and communities to manage risk and adapt to the impacts from climate change[10] via nurturing and responsive care practices to support the transformation of toxic stress into tolerable stress. Work with the government to redesign early learning models and education systems for young children to ensure continuity of learning for all when climate change impacts opportunities for early learning e.g. if families are displaced, learnings is able to pivot from in person to remote delivery systems, and be provided either individually or in small groups, depending on the context

Policy and Advocacy

• Advocate for ‘child-friendly’ communities, towns and cities where urban design, transport systems and architecture enable children and families to have safe, open environments (ie. Playgrounds) that promote play, health and wellbeing. Initiatives like Urban95[11]  work to meet their developed and wellbeing needs through a city’s planning, design and regulation of space, land use, infrastructure and service.
• Advocate for higher quality environments at home, community and geographic locations as well as policies and programs that affect them (e.g. the Han Oi call to action)
• Advocate for WHO air quality guidelines.
• Advocate for ECD to be part of climate change mitigation strategies at the policy level.
• Ensure that environmental risks are addressed in health and safety codes for childcare and other early childhood settings like preschools.
• Use collective power to challenge employers, professional associations, accreditation services and teacher education institutions to include education for sustainability as part of preservice education and professional development.