A Child Friendly City is a local system of good governance
committed to fulfilling children's rights
Children, climate change and CFC
The effects of climate change – including extreme variations in temperatures, increased likeliness of heavy or scarce precipitation, droughts, cyclones, and the rise of temperatures and sea-levels – are affecting all of us on a daily basis. Children bear the worst consequences of these effects, as they are in a stage of development that requires stable conditions for growth. At the same time children are most susceptible to many of the negative impacts of climate change on health, security and social functioning.
Every year, more than 1 million children die of malnutrition; malaria kills eight hundred thousand children under 5 years of age and respiratory diseases cause more than 2 million child deaths. These figures are expected to increase with droughts, water shortages, rising temperatures, and increased pollution deriving from climate change. Forced migration and armed conflicts for food and water access will be more likely to occur and will consequently raise child protection concerns such as forced recruitment, displacement, family separation and exploitation. Impacts on livelihoods will have repercussions on school attendance and on family and social structures.
The impacts of climate change affect the well-being of all children in small communities and big towns as well as in large metropolises. Effects in the urban environment may challenge children differently – in cities for example there may be fewer spaces for safe play as a result of heavy traffic and pollution, exposure to garbage damps, or overcrowding related to food insecurity. Children in developing countries are more vulnerable than their peers in industrialized countries but all children experience some consequences.
Ensuring a healthy and safe environment is a key element of building a child friendly city or community. CFCs are therefore concerned with understanding and addressing the impacts of climate change on children. Strategies for both mitigation and adaptation are required at the national level as well as locally. Depending on the local situation, mitigation strategies may include interventions in water supply and sanitation; generation of clean energy and arrangements for alternative sources of water; disaster risk reduction and preparedness; and capacity building of communities. Adaptation strategies would aim at increasing the city/community’s services to meet the newly generated needs, by investing in health related interventions, awareness raising and strengthening of safety nets and social protection programmes for families and children.
In planning and implementing interventions, children must be recognized as key stakeholders and protagonists of change. After all, children have the keenest interest in the environment in which they will live in the future, and they know their surrounding environment better than adults. Children can be involved in data collection on the environment; in studying climate change; in proposing and being part of initiatives such as water collection and tree planting; and in disaster preparedness efforts including by developing evacuation plans and risk maps. However, to play these roles children need to be empowered by getting to know the risks of climate change and being given scope and responsibility for taking action. Environmental education and the creation of spaces for children to learn and participate are important steps toward achieving improvements and finding solutions. With children, we can build a safer environment for all citizens!
Read more:
- UNICEF (2007) Climate Change and Children
- UNICEF IRC (2008) Climate Change and Children: A Human Security Challenge
- UNICEF UK (2008) Our Climate, Our Children, Our Responsibility: the Implications of climate change for the world’s children
- Bartlett, S. (2008) Climate change and urban children: Impacts and implications for adaptation in low- and middle-income countries, IIED
