As climate talks in Paris approach, stakes are high for frontline communities with the most to lose. Yesterday, UNICEF reported that children will suffer the harshest impacts from rising temperatures. Their findings revealed that “over half a billion children live in extremely high flood occurrence zones; nearly 160 million live in high or extremely high drought severity zones.”
The billions of children in these vulnerable areas are also living below the poverty line. Along with death and devastation brought on by climate change impacts, rising temperatures can also contribute to malnutrition, malaria and diarrhea — all of which are deadly to children. With the WMO revealing that this year is the hottest on record, NGOs are turning up the pressure on negotiators to deliver an even stronger deal to “avert these costs for the world’s poorest people.”
Coverage
- Ethiopia: Unicef Says Children Will Bear the Brunt of Climate Change (AllAfrica)
- 690 Million Children At Risk From Impacts Of Climate Change: UNICEF (Tech Times)
- Poor nations face soaring costs if warming limit exceeded – Oxfam (Reuters)
- Oxfam puts the spotlight on adaptation funds ahead of Paris talks (Deutsche Welle)
Tools and Resources
- Press Release: 2015 likely to be Warmest on Record, 2011-2015 Warmest Five Year Period (WMO)
- Press Release: Delays in cutting emissions set to cost developing countries hundreds of billions of dollars more (Oxfam)
- Report: Game-changers in the Paris climate deal (Oxfam)
- Coverage: Children will bear the brunt of climate change – UNICEF report (UN News Centre)
- Op-ed: Paris climate deal needs solidarity on loss and damage (Climate Home)
- Briefing: Community-based adaptation: managing uncertainty (Care International)
- Briefing: Natural catastrophes and climate change (Swiss Re)
- Report: Severe weather in North America (Munich Re)
- Briefing: Climate change and the financial services sector (Allianz)
- Report: Communicating flood risks in a changing climate (Climate Outreach)
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