Children versus the climate

Planting trees is not going to be enough to address climate risks confronting children in countries like ours

Climate change has become an increasingly severe problem for our coming generations. Given the speed with which climate changes are occurring, and the multiple ways in which these changes can impact our lives, it is entirely appropriate to frame the climate crisis as a child rights issue.

Unicef has drawn needed attention to this issue by creating the Children’s Climate Risk Index which provides an alarming illustration of children being vulnerable to climate change. This is the first time that a UN or any major international development agency has undertaken a comprehensive analysis of climate risk facing children. The mentioned index ranks countries based on how much children within different countries face exposure to climate and environmental hazards.

Cumulatively, nearly half of the world’s nearly 2.2 billion children are living in countries identified by Unicef as being at “extremely high-risk”. This means that over 1 billion children in the world — already suffering due to a lack of adequate water and sanitation, healthcare, and education — could see their lives become even harder.

While climate does not recognise political borders, the fact remains that those in positions of vulnerability within and across nation states are experiencing the real brunt of climate threats. Vulnerable people also lack adequate resources to protect themselves from varied climate change threats or to bounce back from climate related disasters. Compared to adults, children are less able to survive extreme weather events, and they are more vulnerable to toxic chemicals, temperature changes, and diseases. Children, especially in poorer countries, are at increased risk of multiple climate induced risks such as more frequent coastal and riverine flooding, cyclones, severe vector-borne diseases, lead pollution, heatwaves, water scarcity and serious air pollution.

It is ironic that although highly industrialised countries have done the most to wreak environmental havoc, it is children in countries with the lightest ecological footprint, such as in central African states, where children are most at risk. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and India are also among the countries where children are considered at extremely high risk from the impacts of the climate crisis. These countries ranked 14^th, 15^th, 25^th and 26^th respectively on the Children’s Climate Risk Index.

Our policymakers can choose to refute or ignore this dismal assessment, or else, they can try to focus on suggestions put forth to address this growing challenge. Planting trees is not going to be enough to address the multiple climate risks confronting children in countries like ours. Our government needs to increase investment in climate adaptation and resilience especially in key sectors of relevance to children, including water, sanitation and hygiene systems, health, and education services. Pakistan’s debt servicing and defence needs however continue to make such ambitious investments unlikely. While we have invested a lot of effort in creating a controversial single national curriculum, this curriculum hardly pays any attention to providing our children any information about climate change, nor does it try to impart skills needed to contend with climate threats or to create a more environmentally sustainable society.

While climate change will invariably make life difficult for those whose life is already quite difficult, climate changes will also not spare future generations in countries which have many more resources at their disposal. Greta Thunberg, the Swedish young activist, who has motivated young climate defenders in several other countries, has rightly excoriated global leaders over rhetorical promises to address the climate emergency.

The need to re-energise the global economy after the Covid pandemic had provided a golden opportunity to introduce recovery efforts which were green, low-carbon and inclusive. Yet, we see inadequate evidence of immediate and drastic annual emission reductions by states which are the largest global polluters. As things stand, our children will be living in a world which is a much more hostile place due to the actions of their parents’ generation and those of our predecessors.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 8^th, 2021.

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