The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recently published a report titled “Coldest Year of the Rest of Their Lives – Protecting children from the escalating impacts of heatwaves”. The alarming research indicates that by 2050, nearly all children worldwide will face more frequent and severe heatwaves. UNICEF is a distinctive program of the United Nations (UN), dedicated to supporting national initiatives to enhance the health, nutrition, education, and overall wellbeing of children.
Key Findings of the UNICEF Report
At present, about 559 million children are exposed to frequent high heatwaves, with 624 million children at risk from three other high heat measures – protracted duration of heatwaves, severe heatwaves, and extreme high temperatures. Shockingly, one in four children currently inhabits areas where the average heatwave persists for 4.7 days or more. By 2050, under a low-emission scenario, this figure is estimated to escalate to over three-quarters of the global child population.
Predominantly affected regions include southern, western, and southeastern Asia, eastern and southern Europe, and northern Africa, where children experience prolonged duration heatwaves.
Projected Future Impact
By 2050, children exposed to high heatwaves will quadruple, affecting over two billion individuals, a staggering increase of approximately 1.5 billion from 2020. Regrettably, virtually every child will encounter severe heatwaves, even under a low greenhouse gas emission scenario, translating to an estimated 1.7°C of warming in 2050. With 2.4 degrees of warming, a mere 6% of children worldwide will be spared from exposure to long-duration heatwaves.
The Increased Vulnerability of Children
Children are more susceptible to the adverse effects of prolonged heatwaves as they spend more time outdoors engaging in sports and other activities, hence exposing them to a higher risk of heat injury.
Health Implications
Rising temperatures have been associated with an increase in mental health issues among children and teenagers, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Heatwaves also indirectly affect children’s education and future livelihoods. A myriad of health risks accompany heatwaves, such as heat stroke, heat stress, allergy, chronic respiratory conditions, asthma, mosquito-borne disease, cardiovascular disease, undernutrition, and diarrhoea.
Threats to Children’s Safety
Societies are driven to compete over scarce food and water resources as income dries up, resulting in migration, displacement, and conflict, which places children at severe risk of physical harm and violence. In response, UN-backed agencies launched guidelines in July 2022, presenting the first-ever global policy framework to protect displaced children due to climate change.
Essential Recommendations
To address this growing crisis, it is crucial to ensure that the vulnerable have access to necessary resources to adopt critical social services for their protection. Countries must act urgently by protecting children from climate devastation, preparing them for a climate-changed world, prioritizing children and youth in climate financing and resources, and preventing a climate catastrophe by slashing greenhouse gas emissions.
The forthcoming 27th Conference of Parties (COP-27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change presents a vital opportunity to center the resilience of children and their communities in discussions on action and support.
Other Relevant Indices
UNICEF’s Children’s Climate Risk Index ranks countries based on children’s exposure to climatic and environmental threats like cyclones and heatwaves, and their vulnerability to these threats based on their access to crucial services. The Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (ND-GAIN) Index has shown the impact of climate change on children worldwide, explaining that they will face food shortages, diseases and other health threats, water scarcity, or the risk from rising water levels – or a combination of these factors.
To conclude, climate change and its dire implications are not a future threat but an existing reality that calls for immediate action, especially in the face of protecting the most vulnerable population – our children.
