According to UNICEF’s Children’s Climate Risk Index, an estimated 55 million children in Latin America are exposed to water scarcity, another 60 million to cyclones and 45 million to heat waves. File Photo by Sebastiao Moreira/EPA
Nearly 6 million children and young people in Latin America will fall into poverty by 2030 because of climate change’s impact on their communities, a recent report predicts.
However, that situation would become far worse if governments don’t take swift action to limit greenhouse gas emissions and adopt strategies to reduce climate-related losses.
If mitigation measures are too few or delayed, the number of affected children could triple to 17.9 million, according to a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF, and the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, or ECLAC, titled “The Impact of Climate Change on Child and Youth Poverty in Latin America.”
“Children and adolescents bear the greatest burden of climate change. Not only are their developing bodies more vulnerable to extreme events such as cyclones or heat waves, but these events also disrupt their families’ livelihoods and their education,” said Roberto Benes, UNICEF’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
“If children and young people lack the resources to meet their basic needs and reach their potential, inequities in the region will persist.”
During the 1960s, an average of five severe climate events — droughts, floods, tropical cyclones and heat waves — were reported each year. The number shot up to more than 20 per year in the 2010s and reached 30 in the early 2020s, the report noted.
These events divert resources toward damage repair and adaptation instead of investing in infrastructure, education or innovation, limiting potential growth and perpetuating inequalities in Latin America, the report said.
It noted that climate change will intensify these trends and poses a significant threat to efforts to reduce child and youth poverty.
According to UNICEF’s Children’s Climate Risk Index, an estimated 55 million children in Latin America are exposed to water scarcity, another 60 million to cyclones and 45 million to heat waves.
With climate change, the likelihood of facing extreme weather events will increase as global temperatures rise, with potentially devastating effects on children and young people, according to the report.
Droughts, for example, are already intensifying in areas such as Central America’s Dry Corridor, northeastern Brazil and parts of the Southern Cone. They are damaging agricultural production and, for many poor children, mean periods of nutritional deprivation with lifelong consequences.
This could worsen by 2030, the report said, with estimates that between 570,000 and more than 1 million children under age 5 worldwide could suffer stunted growth because of climate change.
Despite being particularly vulnerable, only 3.4% of total multilateral climate financing is directed to children in the region. That funding does not prioritize resilient health, nutrition, education, water and sanitation services that children need for healthy cognitive and physical development.
In Latin America, about 94 million children live in poverty, accounting for 52% of the region’s poor. Poverty is particularly high among children under 15, with 43% affected — or 4 in 10 children.
