A report released ahead of the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement says about 100 million of the estimated 120 million children born in 2020, or 83 percent globally, are likely to face “unprecedented” lifetime exposure to extreme heat.
To save the 38 million five-year-old children from a potential lifetime of unprecedented exposure to dangerous extreme heat, experts have called for the attainment of the Paris Agreement target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C by the end of the century in 2100, according to new research by Save the Children and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).
The report, titled “Born into the Climate Crisis 2. An Unprecedented Life: Protecting Children’s Rights in a Changing Climate,” says that limiting warming to the 1.5°C Paris Agreement goal will to a large extent reduce the number to 62 million affected five-year-olds of 38 million babies lives will be spared, which calls for Immediate phase-out of fossil fuels and their subsidies to protect future generations.
It is common knowledge that dangerous heat is deadly for children because it affects their physical and mental health, disrupts access to food and clean water, forcing schools to close. Report said
Aside from extreme heat, the report noted that achieving the 1.5°C target will shield millions of children born in 2020 from the most devastating consequences of other climate-related disasters, including crop failures, floods, tropical cyclones, droughts, and wildfires.
Explaining in detail, researchers describe “unprecedented life" as an exposure to climate extremes that someone would have less than a 1 in 10,000 chance of experiencing during their life in a world without human-induced climate change.
Again the report found that climate extremes, which are becoming more frequent and severe due to climate change, are increasingly harming children, forcing them from their homes, putting food out of reach, damaging schools, and increasing risks like child marriage as they are forced out of education and into poverty and food shortages.
The analysis further examined a more severe scenario where global temperatures rise to 3.5°C by 2010. In this case, approximately 92 percent of children born in 2020 – around 111 million – would face unprecedented lifetime exposure to heat waves.
"Children already facing inequality and discrimination, particularly those in lower- and middle-income countries, are disproportionately affected by climate change". It says
They often have fewer resources to cope with climate shocks and are at greater risk from diseases, hunger, and the vulnerability of their homes to extreme weather events.
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The Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of Save the Children International, Inger Ashing, said, “Across the world, children are forced to bear the brunt of a crisis they are not responsible for.
Heatwave experts say, puts their health and learning at risk; cyclones that batter their homes and schools; creeping droughts that shrivel up crops and shrink what’s on their plates.
“Amid this daily drumbeat of disasters, children plead with us not to switch off because, with the new research, there is hope, only if nations act urgently to rapidly limit warming temperatures to 1.5℃, and put children in front of our response to climate change at every level.”
As the world’s leading independent child rights organization, Save the Children Initiative, SCI is advocating a rapid transition away from fossil fuels and highlighting solutions such as increased climate finance, child-centered adaptation strategies, and greater participation of children in shaping climate action.
The organization works in approximately 110 countries to support children and their communities in preventing, preparing for, adapting to, and recovering from the impacts of climate disasters and gradual climate change. It says
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