UNICEF has released the new report “The Climate Crisis is a Child Rights Crisis: Introducing the Children's Climate Risk Index”. The report finds that nearly every child on earth is already exposed to at least one climate and environmental hazard, such as flooding, heatwaves, water scarcity, drought, cyclones and air pollution. And approximately 1 billion children – nearly half the world's 2.2 billion children – live in one of the 33 countries classified as 'extremely high-risk'.

‘The Climate Crisis Is a Child Rights Crisis: Introducing the Children’s Climate Risk Index’ is the first comprehensive analysis of climate risk from a child’s perspective. It ranks countries based on children’s exposure to climate and environmental shocks, such as cyclones and heatwaves, as well as their vulnerability to those shocks, based on their access to essential services. It finds that young people living in the Central African Republic, Chad, Nigeria, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau are the most at risk of the impacts of climate change, threatening their health, education, and protection, and exposing them to deadly diseases.

“For the first time, we have a complete picture of where and how children are vulnerable to climate change, and that picture is almost unimaginably dire. Climate and environmental shocks are undermining the complete spectrum of children’s rights, from access to clean air, food and safe water; to education, housing, freedom from exploitation, and even their right to survive. Virtually no child’s life will be unaffected,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director.

UNICEF urges governments and businesses to listen to children and prioritise actions that protect them from impacts, while accelerating work to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Find out more here One billion children at ‘extremely high risk’ of the impacts of the climate crisis - UNICEF