Climate Change and Early Childhood Knowledge Hub
A platform for the ECD sector in the Asia-Pacific Region to learn more about climate change and its impacts on young children
Young Children and Climate Change * From Most Vulnerable to Most Valuable
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Young Children and Climate Change * From Most Vulnerable to Most Valuable *
Nearly 90% of the global health burden related to climate change is borne by children under five. More than 1.7 million premature deaths among children under five are attributable to unhealthy environments. Young children are disproportionately affected by climate change across all nurturing care components.
Children born in 2020 will experience, on average, twice as many wildfires, 2.8 times as much exposure to crop failure, 2.6 times as many drought events, 2.8 times as many river floods, and 6.8 times more heat waves across their lifetimes, compared to people born in 1960.
Young children are disproportionately affected by climate change across all five nurturing care components - Good Health, Adequate Nutrition, Responsive Caregiving, Safety and Security, Opportunities for Early Learning.
According to the IPCC, Children who were aged 10 or younger in the year 2020 are projected to experience a nearly four-fold increase in extreme events under 1.5°C of global warming by 2100, and a five-fold increase under 3°C warming. And according to UNICEF, children in Asia and the Pacific are hardest hit by multiple overlapping shocks. 41% of children in the region experience 5 or more simultaneous shocks, compared to the global average of 14%. The Children’s Climate Risk Index (CCRI), developed by UNICEF in 2021, found that nearly half of the world’s children live in extremely high-risk countries.
Despite being the least responsible for climate change, young children will be the ones facing the greatest impacts of climate change.
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