Sustainability, climate change and the environment
Children are affected disproportionately by climate change, but they are also our greatest hope for lasting climate solutions. Investing in child-sensitive solutions benefits everyone: children, their families, communities and nations.
- English
- русский
Data from the region
Nearly 160 million children in Europe and Central Asia live in countries at medium to high risk of exposure to a wide range of hazards, shocks and stresses related to climate change and environmental degradation.
One child in every two in the region is exposed to frequent heatwaves, compared to a global average of one child in every four.
The top three environmental health risk factors for children under the age of five in the region are air pollution, extreme heat or cold, and poor water quality.
Air pollution inside homes has been linked to almost two-thirds of neonatal deaths related to the lack of clean air.
Almost 160 million children across Europe and Central Asia are at risk of exposure to hazards as a result of climate change and environmental degradation. Compared to adults, children will be affected disproportionately by these risks – which threaten almost every aspect of their health and well-being at every stage of their development, even when they are still in the womb.
Children are hit first and hardest by every type of climate and environmental crisis, including:
- extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, floods, sandstorms, mudslides and landslides;
- challenges triggered by climate change and environmental threats, including drought and desertification, air pollution, lead pollution, pesticide pollution, deteriorating water quality and energy poverty.
Heatwaves, for example, are increasing in both intensity and frequency across the region. Half of the children in this region experience frequent heatwaves – more than 4.5 heatwaves a year – compared to a global average of one child in every four.
The consequences can be deadly, and long-term. Children exposed to heatwaves are at risk of heatstroke, dehydration and diarrhoea, as well as asthma, allergies, cardiovascular illness and respiratory problems. Heatwaves also raise the risk of labour complications, and babies exposed to heatwaves in utero are more likely to be premature and have low birth weight.
More than eight children in every ten in the region are regularly exposed to toxic levels of air pollution, which is the single biggest environmental risk for children's health. Air pollution heightens the risks of respiratory infections, pneumonia, asthma and death. It can trigger serious health problems over the long term, from lung cancer to cardiovascular disease, and can damage brain development.
Many children across the region face overlapping risks. Conflict, poverty, climate change and environmental degradation often reinforce and compound each other to devastate child health and well-being. Yet children are often treated as an afterthought in the response to climate change and environmental degradation. UNICEF aims to ensure that they are front and centre.
Key policies
1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child
The Convention acknowledges the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment:
- Article 6: children have the right to the highest attainable standard of health
- Article 24: ‘taking into consideration the dangers and risks of environmental pollution’
- Article 29: education, including the development of respect for the natural environment.
2015 Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts:
- Target 13.3: Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning.
What is UNICEF doing?
UNICEF works to protect the lives, health and well-being of children against climate change and environmental degradation and enhance the resilience of their communities. We do so by supporting their long-term development and the adaptation of essential social services to a changing climate and a degrading environment.
Our work with governments, communities and partners across the region includes support for climate change education, the empowerment of children and young people, and evidence and advocacy for child-sensitive climate policies.
Our support for climate change education includes the creation of sustainable schools. We work to integrate climate change into the curricula, and support the training of teachers in climate education. Our support helps schools improve their own climate resilience, reduce their greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, and use early-warning systems – such as heat alerts. We also provide evidence and training for teachers, health professionals and caregivers on air pollution and ways to improve indoor air quality. And we advocate for shock-responsive social protection – an agile approach that responds to climate shocks by supplementing the incomes of vulnerable families.
We empower children and young people by giving them the opportunities, education and skills they need to become champions for the environment. Many are taking the lead on key issues, such as resource consumption, pollution, energy efficiency, renewable energy, waste management, water conservation and management, tree planting and the protection of biodiversity.
We advocate for child-sensitive climate policies. Nationally determined contributions (NDCs), for example, are national commitments to reduce GHG emissions and adapt to a changing climate. UNICEF is calling for these commitments to be transformed into child-sensitive solutions through investments in:
- climate change education
- health and nutrition
- climate-resilient infrastructure, such as schools and hospitals
- budgets for child-focused initiatives
- robust evidence on the disproportionate impact of climate change on children, and the best solutions to protect them.
Nationally Determined Contributions animation
Sing-along
When you plan
for what you know is coming our way
When you hear our calls
and give us a say
When you stop using coal
and clean up the air
You help us breath freely
and show that you care
When you learn from the land
and adapt to its changes
You protect all our crops
And reduce all the dangers
When you find new ways
For grains to grow
the changes to our planet
we will soon see slow
When the rains bring floods
Make sure you have built
Our schools in safe places
Safe from the silt
When the temperatures
Continue their steady rise
Keep us shaded
Amid the heated highs
When you protect us all
From its line of fire
You make all of this stress
A little less dire
When you bring us
To have a seat at your table
We can share ideas
You know we are able
When you speak out for us,
And demand what is right,
Urge leaders to pledge
To a greener fight.
Speak for our tomorrow,
With passion and care
Urge climate justice
For the breath that we share.