A new UNICEF report has disclosed that climate change is endangering children’s health at every stage of development, threatening to reverse decades of progress in reducing child mortality worldwide.
The U.N. children’s agency’s “Threat to Progress” report released last week consolidates growing evidence of climate change’s effects on children’s health, identifying six major hazards: extreme heat, droughts, wildfires, floods, air pollution and ecosystem changes.
“Climate change is changing children,” UNICEF said. “It is impacting almost every aspect of child health and well-being from pregnancy to adolescence.”
Children are uniquely vulnerable to climate change due to physiological, psychosocial and behavioral factors, as well as their dependence on caregivers, the report found. Their frequent outdoor activities expose them to environmental risks differently than adults.
Extreme weather events are becoming more common, disrupting food supplies and increasing child malnutrition. Children are also susceptible to injuries from climate hazards and mental health issues, including developmental delays and depression.
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UNICEF’s Children’s Climate Risk Index reported in 2021 that one billion children are at extremely high risk from climate impacts, threatening their survival and deepening existing inequities.
“We suffer the most,” said Francisco, a 14-year-old UNICEF child advocate in Somalia. “Children have dreams about the future, but they are losing hope because of climate change. It’s absolutely important to consider children’s health when tackling these issues because the climate crisis is also a health crisis.”
According to the report, the vulnerability has deadly consequences, with child mortality falling sharply in recent decades, from 93 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 37 in 2022 for children under 5. Despite this progress, UNICEF calls the current rate “unacceptably high,” with an estimated 4.9 million children dying annually.
Now, climate change threatens to reverse these gains.
The report found that 559 million children currently face frequent heat waves, a number expected to surpass 2 billion globally by 2050. Between 2000–2019 approximately 489,000 heat-related deaths occurred every year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warns that nearly 25% of children today endure frequent heat waves.
In low-income countries, a 1 C temperature rise causes 16.6 additional infant deaths per 1,000 live births in the first year of life. With global temperatures on track to rise 2.7 C by the century’s end, this could result in millions of additional infant deaths.
Water stress affects 953 million children, impacting health and food availability. In 2019, air pollution contributed to 476,000 infant deaths in their first month of life.
Climate-related displacement is a major concern. Over the past six years, weather-related disasters caused 43.1 million internal displacements of children, averaging about 20,000 daily.
“These issues are not just future threats; they are current realities impacting our children today,” said Dr Helena Clements, child health officer for climate change at the Royal College of Paediatrics. “We can no longer talk about improving child health without also addressing the urgent need to tackle climate change.”
A warming world is intensifying infectious diseases like malaria and dengue. Heat-related illnesses, asthma, and chronic metabolic and cardiovascular diseases are also worsening. Heatwaves and other climate hazards are linked to pregnancy complications, including preterm births, low birth weight and stillbirths.
Without swift action to mitigate climate change and scale up adaptation measures, children will continue to bear the brunt of the crisis, the U.N. children’s agency said.
Children’s vulnerability to climate change varies widely based on circumstances they didn’t choose: wealth, gender, nationality, and health status. Yet all face a crisis they didn’t create, the U.N. children’s agency said.
“The world is at a crossroads,” UNICEF said. “The true measure of success or failure in addressing climate change lies not solely in temperature metrics, but rather in the tangible reduction of child mortality and morbidity attributable to its impacts.”
The report urges governments to take decisive action on three fronts to stem the crisis. It calls for drastic emissions cuts to meet the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C target, a goal that’s slipping away as global temperatures climb.
The agency also pushes for robust measures to shield children from climate impacts, including bolstering climate-resilient healthcare and securing access to food and clean water. Above all, UNICEF stresses that child welfare must be at the heart of climate policy.
“It is our responsibility to call for action on areas such as high greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, food and water supplies, climate-resilient health services, and overall preparedness for our changing climate,” said Clements. “We cannot allow our children to inherit a damaged and unsafe planet.”
