Climate change

Excellencies, Children are growing up in a world of increasing dangers due to environmental degradation and climate change. Safeguarding children and future generations from escalating climate threats requires immediate and decisive action. I am honoured to deliver this statement on behalf of 68 members of the Group of Friends of Children and the…

UNICEF’s Sustainability and Climate Change Action Plan 2023-2030 guides communities, governments and global leaders to work together to prioritize children’s needs. By 2030, UNICEF with partners, aspires to reach 500 million children in 100 countries with integrated climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction solutions, including 30…, Our commitments, UNICEF endorses the COP28 Relief, Recovery and Peace Declaration and has pledged the following commitments, Climate and disaster financing for children, To address the ever-widening finance gap for climate resilience and disaster risk reduction, UNICEF launched the Today & Tomorrow Initiative, the world’s first integrated climate and disaster risk finance solution for children. Today & Tomorrow combines climate resilience and risk prevention programmes “today” with an innovative use of…, Early warning systems and child-responsive preparedness, Child-responsive early warning systems are essential for protecting the most vulnerable members of society when disasters strike. Yet, half of countries globally are not protected by early warning systems, with the lowest coverage in Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries.   The Secretary General’s Early Warnings for All…, Child-focused climate and disaster risk analysis, Risk information is required to develop strategies and programmes that help build climate-resilient services for children, including preparedness, response and national and subnational recovery efforts. In many countries, there is a lack of disaggregated, timely, geo-referenced, subnational data at high resolution vital for targeted action (…, Conflict-sensitive and peacebuilding programming, Many of the most climate vulnerable countries are also affected by conflict, which undermines state capacity to prevent, mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change. It is essential that we ensure support to countries to address conflict and climate risks. UNICEF’s Strategic Plan (2022-2025) elevates peacebuilding as a priority and aims to…, About the Declaration, The Climate Relief, Recovery, and Peace Declaration is a voluntary commitment to increase climate adaptation efforts and access to finance for communities and countries threatened or affected by fragility or conflict, or facing high humanitarian needs and insecurity; to strengthen knowledge and programmatic solutions for climate action in such…

Climate change threatens the lives, health and well-being of children. They are the most vulnerable to its effects, and those who live in low-income communities are at particularly high risk of harm. To save and protect lives and prevent climate change’s worst impacts on children, we need to act now. There are clear, practical solutions that work…, Paving the way for a climate resilient education system in India, A group of students using polybags from waste and fill them with field soil to grow the saplings for school nursery  during environmental activities session at a school in Maharashtra, India India, 2023. Students use polybags from waste and fill them with field soil to grow saplings for their school nursery as part of an environmental activities…, Early detection of groundwater depletion in Madagascar, The semi-arid southern region of Madagascar has been hit hard by years of severe droughts, which has left more than 4.8 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. The region has the country’s lowest water supply coverage, which is further exacerbated by climate change. The lack of rainfall and other environmental factors have also affected…, Innovations in climate risk reduction in Venezuela, A boy, 10, collects safe water at the UNICEF-installed solar-powered water treatment plant in Venezuela Venezuela, 2023. Dahir Franco, 10,collects safe water at the UNICEF-installed solar-powered water treatment plant in San Francisco de Guayo, Venezuela. Disaster risk reduction is an essential element of responding to climate change as children…, Reducing the impact of greenhouse gas emissions from sanitation in Kampala, Uganda, Two masons construct a new pit latrine with a bathroom in a village in Uganda. Uganda, 2022. Two masons construct a new municipality-approved pit latrine with a bathroom, for a commercial structure in Mukono, Uganda. Climate change and sanitation are intrinsically connected. Poorly managed sanitation emits significant greenhouse gas (GHG)…

UNICEF works on disaster risk reduction (DRR) disaster risk reduction (DRR)  in 150 countries. Child-responsive DRR prioritizes children and young people in the whole disaster management cycle, ensuring their individual and collective needs are part of policies, plans and systems. UNICEF and its partners also engage children and young people in…

Quote from UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Kitty van der Heijden: “Our success or failure in tackling the climate crisis will be judged by two numbers. Keeping 1.5 degrees alive and protecting the 1 billion child lives that are in jeopardy from this crisis. “The climate crisis is not just changing the planet. It is changing children. Children’s…

The climate crisis is a child rights crisis – jeopardizing every child’s fundamental right to a clean, safe and healthy environment. And 1 billion children - nearly half of the world's 2.2 billion children - face extreme risks to their ability to survive, grow and thrive. Climate change is decimating the very foundations of what it means to be a…

GENEVA/NEW YORK, 21 November 2023 - Pregnant women, babies and children face extreme health risks from climate catastrophes that warrant urgent attention, according to a Call for Action released today by United Nations (UN) agencies ahead of the global Conference of the Parties (COP28) negotiations on climate change in Dubai. According to the…

“We were so worried,” remembers Sok Mom, looking in the distance. Her two sons, Seyha and Vatana, had fallen badly sick with diarrhea. The nearest health centre was over 3 kilometres away, and with no road to get there, they rushed to reach it in a fishing boat. Mom and her boys live on the edge of a tributary of the mighty Mekong River in…

NEW YORK, 13 November 2023 – 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 a new UNICEF report. Further, the double burden of dwindling water availability and inadequate drinking water and sanitation services is…

The climate crisis is not just changing the planet, it is changing children. It is affecting children everywhere – their lives, their communities and their health. Children's bodies and minds are uniquely vulnerable to pollution, deadly diseases and extreme weather, and they are disproportionately affected by the impacts of disasters,…, UNICEF at COP28, The COP28 Climate Conference is a critical point in the fight against the climate crisis, and the fight for children’s rights and wellbeing. World leaders and the international community must ensure child rights are prominent within the key outcomes of COP28, so that the needs of children are respected, promoted and considered in all aspects of…, COP28: Outcomes and highlights, Closing statement by UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Kitty van der Heijden Launch of Green Rising: Pathways for youth action by 2025 UNICEF's commitments to Relief, Recovery and Peace Joint statement by Group of Friends of Children and the SDG Powered by Curator.io Follow  @ UNICEF  for the latest updates. Learn about  UNICEF's on the ground…, UNICEF x Youth x Climate, Working together on the decisions that matter most Young people have the right to be heard on climate change. UNICEF builds communities for youth activists and connects young people to global opportunities in over 190 countries. How much do young people know about climate change? UNICEF and Gallup surveyed youth aged 15+ years in 55 countries. We…, More voices of youth, Water and climate change, Climate change is felt through water – whether too much, too little or too polluted Every region of the world, including high-income countries, faces challenges related to water scarcity or lack of access to clean water. With climate change, the problem is projected to get much worse over the coming decades., UNICEF calls for urgent climate action, We are bearing witness to the ways in which children's health and communities are already being altered in a climate-changed world. Children need to be at the centre of the global response. UNICEF calls on Parties to: Protect the lives, health and well-being of children and the resilience of their communities by adapting essential social services…, Roadmap resources, Children need urgent action on climate change UNICEF's strategy at a glance Sustainability and climate change action plan Child-sensitive climate policies for every child

GENEVA, 6 Oct 2023 – “A growing number of children are being forced from their homes by extreme weather events. To date, they have largely remained invisible. And too often unprotected. “To shine a light on this highly vulnerable and growing number of children around the world, UNICEF has published this first-ever analysis to estimate the number…

The planetary crisis of climate change, environmental pollution and biodiversity loss has put virtually every child in the world at risk – with one billion children facing extreme risks to their ability to survive, grow and thrive. We know that children are the least responsible for this global emergency, yet they shoulder the greatest burden of…