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Climate crisis

Climate crisis

Climate Crisis

The climate crisis is a threat multiplier for violence against children.

 
 
The climate crisis is one of the major global challenges of our time. We are facing a new normal of rising sea levels, devastating floods, cyclones, air pollution, global warming, and extreme weather events, among others. Yet children – who bear the least responsibility for the climate crisis – are among those hit hardest by its impacts. Around the world, 820 million (over one-third of the world’s children) are highly exposed to heatwaves, four hundred million (nearly 1 in 6) to cyclones, 330 million (1 in 7) to river flooding, 240 million (1 in 10) to coastal flooding, and 920 million (over one third) to a lack of water. A paradigm shift is needed as a matter of urgency. This must be based on the inclusion of children as part of the solution, far greater investment in their well-being, and child-sensitive climate laws and policies that are backed by adequate resources and monitoring. According to UNICEF, only 42% of all nationally determined contributions contain direct references to children or young people, only 20% contain a specific mention of children, and less than 2% mention their rights. Far more needs to be done to ensure child-sensitive responses to the climate crisis.
 

 

 

Initiatives taken by the office on the impact of the climate crisis on children

Annual report to the United Nations General Assembly 2022

Child-friendly version of the annual report to the UNGA 2022

Advocacy brief on the climate crisis and violence against children

 

 

Presentation of the Annual Report to the Third Committee

 

 

Webcast of the UNGA annual report briefing to children 

 

 

Webcast of the event on the climate crisis and violence against children

 

 

Children demand action from policymakers to reverse the climate crisis on the compelling global video

 

Across the globe, many children and young people are acting and using the justice system as a strong and powerful tool to demand climate justice. Young activists across various regions have been involved in legal proceedings to demand more ambitious emissions cuts to safeguard their future; to require an assessment of the impact of fossil fuel extraction on children; and to stop deforestation, among other examples. The video is a strong reminder that children and young people must be involved in the implementation and development of those policies, including the most vulnerable and most highly affected.

 

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Ensuring sustainable solutions means strengthening the capacities of children and young people, investing in their education on climate change and environmental issues, and equipping them to be part of the solution in disaster risk reduction and climate mitigation efforts.

The Special Representative is committed to raising the awareness of people around the world towards the devastating impacts climate crisis has had on the rights of children. To this end, the Special Representative dedicated her 2022 Annual Report to the United Nations General Assembly to this topic. In the report, the Special Representative outlines the impact of the climate crisis on child protection and well-being, emphasizing the need to understand and address the linkages between those two pressing challenges and the way the climate crisis acts as a threat multiplier for violence against children. With less than eight years remaining to keep the promise made through the Sustainable Development Goals to end all forms of violence against children, there is a need to learn the lessons from the pandemic, ongoing humanitarian emergencies and the climate crisis and to invest in an inclusive, resilient, and safe recovery for all children worldwide, leaving no one behind. 

 

Key links and more information about climate action and violence against children