UNICEF started a campaign that calls for $10.3 billion says more than one billion children are at «extremely high risk» right now from the effects of our changing climate. The campaign will support more than 110 million children across 155 countries and territories through 2023.
UNICEF released a first-of-its-kind report analyzing youth exposure and vulnerability to climate and environmental risks. It found that almost all of the world’s children are facing at least one environmental risk, including heatwaves, floods, cyclones, disease, drought, and air pollution.
Roughly 1 billion children are already at severe risk facing at least 3 disasters simultaneously, along with other risk factors such as poverty and lack of access to health care, water, or education.
The lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and global economic disruption and instability, including inflation and the rising cost of food and fuel, have had a devastating impact on the lives and wellbeing of millions of the world’s most vulnerable children.
Climate change is also worsening the scale and intensity of emergencies. The last 10 years were the hottest on record and the number of climate-related disasters has tripled in the last 30 years. Today, over 400 million children live in areas of high or extremely high-water vulnerability.
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“Today, there are more children in need of humanitarian assistance than at any other time in recent history,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Across the globe, they are facing a deadly mix of crises, from conflict and displacement to disease outbreaks and soaring rates of malnutrition. Meanwhile, climate change is making these crises worse and unleashing new ones.
“This will help us to reach children living through today’s crises, while also helping them and their communities prepare for those yet to come,” she added.
