“The Climate Changed Child” report was released by UNICEF ahead of the COP28 climate change summit .
Key findings
- UNICEF’s 2021 landmark Children’s Climate Risk Index (CCRI) report found that 1 billion children are at extremely high risk of the impacts of the climate crisis and examined eight components of climate and environmental shocks and stresses.
- This report builds on the CCRI and examines one of these components – water scarcity (the physical availability of water) along with water vulnerability (the combination of water scarcity and lack of access to drinking water service).
- 1 in 3 children – or 739 million worldwide – already live in areas exposed to high or very high water scarcity, with climate change threatening to make this worse.
- According to the report findings, the greatest share of children are exposed in the Middle East and North Africa and South Asia regions.
- The climate crisis is not just changing the planet – it is changing children. Only 2.4 per cent of climate finance from key multilateral climate funds support projects incorporating child-responsive activities.
- Children have almost no formal role in climate policy and decisions, and they are rarely considered in existing climate adaptation, mitigation or finance plans and actions.
- As of 2022: 739 million children were exposed to high or extremely high water scarcity and 436 million children live in areas of high or extremely high water vulnerability.
- Every region of the world, including high-income countries, faces challenges related to water scarcity and with climate change, the problem is projected to get much worse over the coming decades.
