Climate Change Implications for the World's Children - UNICEF

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CONSIDER FOR THE GIRL CHILD & MOTHERS

Direct Link to UNICEF UK Report:

http://www.unicef.org.uk/campaigns/publications/pdf/climate-change.pdf

Our climate, our children, our responsibility

OUR CLIMATE, OUR CHILDREN, OUR RESPONSIBILITY

The Implications of Climate Change for the World's Children

Examples of Gender Excerpts:

*"One way in which climate change will affect the education and gender equality MDGs is by making it more difficult for children to attend school. The potential impacts on livelihoods outlined earlier may make it more likely that parents remove their children from school - and in most cultures this will almost certainly mean removing girls first - so that they can work to supplement household income.

*Girls in particular are often asked to assist their mothers in tasks such as collecting firewood and water, and the pressures on parents to employ children in this way are likely to increase as water and other natural resources become increasingly scarce.

*Educating girls is a unique investment that is proven to have an impact beyond the classroom - benefiting entire famillies and communities. Currently, there are 115 girls out of primary school for every 100 boys. This stark example of gender inequality is likely to worsen as climate change pressures increase.

*Women and children appear to be more vulnerable to the impacts of natural disasters. Pregnant and nursing women, and those with small children, are particularly vulnerable.

*Women and children account for more than 75% of the displaced people following natural disasters. The vulnerability of women and child refugees to sexual violence, both during transit and in refugee camps, has been extensively documented.

*Following the Asian tsunami in 2004, World Health Organization expressed concern that children in the region were particularly vulnerable to trafficking and other forms of exploitation, as many more women than men appeared to have died. One reason for this was thought to be that many mothers attempted to rescue their children and other family members, thereby increasing their own vulnerability."

UNICEF Website Links:

http://www.unicef.org.uk/campaigns/publications/pub_detail.asp?pub_id=162

http://www.unicef.org.uk/press/news_detail_full_story.asp?news_id=1120

David Bull, UNICEF UK Executive Director, said, “Those who have contributed least to climate change - the world’s poorest children - are suffering the most. If the world does not act now to mitigate and adapt to the risks and realities of climate change, we will seriously hamper efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 and sustain development progress thereafter. Many more children could die. It’s clear that a failure to address climate change is a failure to protect children.”

The report maps the consequences of climate change for children in the context of the MDGs and children’s rights, highlighting:

Increased child poverty due to reduced incomes and threatened livelihoods (affecting MDG 1): Climate change could cause an additional 40,000 to 160,000 child deaths per year in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa through Gross Domestic Product (GDP) losses alone.
Increased hunger (MDG 1 and 4): With temperature increases of 2°C, an additional 30 - 200 million people will be placed at risk of hunger globally rising to as many as 550 million with warming of 3°C.
Fewer children able to attend school, especially girls (MDG 2 and 3): The negative impact on livelihoods may make it more likely that parents remove their children from school – and in most cultures this will almost certainly mean removing girls first – so that they can collect water and fuel and supplement household income
Increased childhood disease (waterborne/communicable) (MDG 6 and 7): Malaria: changes in environmental factors mean malaria - which already kills 800,000 children every year - is now being seen in areas which were previously outside the range of malarial mosquitoes, such as the highlands of Kenya and Jamaica. Diarrhoea: Climate change will increase the burden of diarrhoeal disease in low income countries by between 2 and 5 per cent by 2020. Dengue: Estimates suggest the population at risk could increase to 3.5 billion by 2080 (from 1.5 billion today) due to climate changes.

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