A child in climate change

World

over, children are paying an enormous price for climate change. UNICEF estimates that one billion children — almost half of all kids on

Earth

— are at ‘extremely high risk’ to climate impacts. Almost every child on Earth is now exposed to at least one major climate hazard, from floods and heatwaves to pollution and drought.


The World Economic Forum reports that a child born now faces 6.8 times more heatwaves, 2.6 times more drought and 2.8 times more floods and crop failures than a person born in 1960. The UN finds 90% of the global burden of disease linked to climate change is borne by children under five. Pollution is the most telling fact — 90% children globally are exposed to air pollution, caused by the combustion of fossil fuels in sectors we all use, from transport to agriculture, electricity to construction. Our way of life has parched and polluted the Earth — and children are paying the heaviest price.



The poorest kids could pay more. The World Bank estimates that by 2030, 132 million people could be pushed into poverty by climate change — millions in developing nations already face extreme weather, soil desertification, water stress and crop failures. Currently, 82.4 million people have been forcibly displaced worldwide, uprooted also by climate conflicts over land, water and food. Their children have lost a home of dignity and peace somewhere on a sunlit hill or a village by the sea.


As their families’ resources slip away in floods and storms, these children face working like adults to survive, their lost education locking them into endemic poverty. We, the grown-ups, cannot let this happen. As

Times Evoke

’s global experts outline, multiple solutions are possible, from urging the swiftest transition to renewable energy to ensuring rich economies deliver on climate finance aimed to protect ecosystems that protect people. We must also build climate resilience in children’s minds.



They didn’t start this fire — but facing it, kids must know climate science and empathy to offer solutions powered by a child’s unbounded imagination and pure heart. On the eve of Children’s Day, join Times Evoke in exploring ways you can strengthen a child in climate change.