Children Displaced in a Changing Climate

• United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recently released the Children Displaced in a Changing Climate

MAJOR FINDINGS

• Over the last six years, weather-related disasters have forcefully displaced at least 134.1 million people, of which 32 per cent or 43.1 million were children from 44 countries.
• Thus at least three of every 10 persons displaced across the world due to weather-related disasters was a child.
• Storms (21.2 million) and floods (19.7 million) have been the most damaging and accounted for 95 per cent of forced child displacements in this period.
• The region with the largest number of weather-related child displacements was East Asia and the Pacific, followed by South Asia, UNICEF estimates showed.
• A little over 53 per cent (23 million) of the children displaced were in three countries – Philippines, India and China.
  • These three countries were highly prone to weather-related disasters and so, the risks may increase further due to climate-driven extreme weather events.
• The greatest proportion of child population displaced was in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and countries in the Horn of Africa