Climate change has recently taken center stage in global discussions, amid frequent instances of extreme weather conditions and growing concerns about rising temperatures worldwide. While the impacts of climate change are increasingly evident, there is a crucial aspect that demands attention: The 2.4 billion children whose future is under imminent threat and whether their voices are considered in decision-making.
Despite contributing insignificantly to this emerging crisis, children continue to bear a disproportionate impact of climate change. According to a recent report released by Save the Children, 774 million children worldwide face the dual threats of poverty and inequality. Among them, 710 million children live in countries at high risk of suffering from the climate crisis. According to another report, “Born into Climate Crisis,” a child born in 2020 is likely to experience nearly seven times as many heatwaves as someone born in 1960.
Nepal, categorized among the top 20 countries most susceptible to natural disasters, grapples with the impending threat of the crisis. Eighty percent of our population faces significant risks of falling victim to natural disasters such as heatwaves, floods, and droughts. Children comprise two-thirds of those who receive a reduced portion of food post-disaster. The crisis looms larger in the lives of Nepali children with multifold impacts, affecting their basic rights to education, protection, survival, and growth. These climate-related losses and damages, along with intergenerational injustice, extend to include economic and cultural losses, loss of life, health impacts, biodiversity, displacement, migration, and many other negative impacts on communities.
“Schools remain shut for weeks because of heatwaves in summer and cold waves in winter. These breaks are becoming more prolonged each year. We are out of school almost half of the academic year,” shared a child from Lumbini.
“My family is entirely dependent on the income from agriculture. But in recent years, we haven’t been able to grow sufficient agricultural produce in any of the harvesting seasons because of erratic rainfall. This has not only impacted my family’s livelihood and our food security but also largely affected my mental wellbeing, causing constant anxiety and negative thoughts,” shared a child participant in a consultation session conducted by Save the Children.
It is also equally important to understand that the climate crisis affects different segments of society differently, and we must adopt an intersectionality lens in addressing the issue. The impact of climate is usually felt at multiple layers, with an unequal burden faced by those already at the margins. For instance, when a shortage of agricultural produce causes financial strains on families, it is often girls who are forced to drop out of school to sustain family expenses. During periods of drought, it is often women, including pregnant women, who are compelled to walk miles to collect water. Similarly, when disasters hit, children with disabilities face more struggles in accessing relief and safety mechanisms.
The imperative to prioritize climate change on the global agenda is clear, but a compelling question that is often overlooked is whether we are acting in the interest of those on the front lines? According to a report published by Save the Children, “Falling Short: Addressing the Climate Finance Gap for Children,” among 591 projects assessed, only 2.4 percent of climate finance from key multilateral climate funds was found to support projects incorporating child-responsive activities. Very rarely, in only one percent of projects, is the involvement of children foreseen as part of the design and/or monitoring of the project itself.
The international community should uphold its commitment to provide sufficient child-centric climate financing, along with global platforms for children from the most impacted countries to raise their concerns and voices.
The General Comment 26, recently endorsed by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, states out a clear connection between the climate crisis and its impact on child rights. The document underscores the utmost need to ensure meaningful child participation in the climate justice agenda and decision-making. However, despite some positive developments, such as Nepal’s engagement in global climate justice conversations, meaningful child participation and child-centric dialogues around the issue remain minimal. These gaps can be attributed to the lack of youth and child-friendly climate policies at the local and national levels that support meaningful participation in decision-making spaces.
More resources should be dedicated to promoting children and youth engagement in climate actions and decision-making, as well as in developing comprehensive climate education to ensure children are climate-informed from a young age. Likewise, Nepal’s ambitious commitment to reaching net-zero greenhouse emissions by 2045 in its second Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in 2020 is commendable. But are these plans reflective of the lived experiences, recommendations, and demands of children and youth who are at the frontline of the crisis?
As momentum around the climate justice agenda grows, world leaders must acknowledge that these decisions cannot exclude the most vulnerable populations. The international community should uphold its commitment to provide sufficient child-centric climate financing, along with global platforms for children from the most impacted countries to raise their concerns and voices. Children and youth are not just passive victims of the climate crisis but a force to be reckoned with. They have set historical precedents globally by driving strong movements on climate justice and ushering in renewed perspectives on the issue. There is an urgent need to listen to their voices and enhance their agency to tackle the climate crisis for a greener and cleaner world.
Spriha Shrestha is the Senior Coordinator for Campaigns and Public Engagement at Save the Children in Nepal.
Comment