Funds for the world’s climate hotspots neglect the needs of children Dr. Jassim Taqui DG, Al-Bab Institute for Strategic Studies

Islamabad June 24, 2023, Children are being failed by climate funding commitments, despite bearing the brunt of the climate crisis, according to a new report from members of the Children’s Environmental Rights Initiative (CERI) coalition; Plan International, Save the Children, and UNICEF. Just 2.4 percent of key global climate funds can be classified as supporting child-responsive activities, the report finds. According to UNICEF’s Children’s Climate Risk Index, more than a billion children are at extremely high risk of the impacts of the climate crisis. Maria Marshall, a 13-year-old UNICEF child advocate and climate activist from Barbados said, “Children are the future, but our future is shaped by the actions of those making decisions in the present, and our voices are not being heard. As this report shows, funding climate solutions is an obligation, but how that money is spent also matters. Children’s needs and perspectives must be included.” The study, Falling Short: addressing the climate finance gap for Children used a set of three criteria to assess if climate finance from key multilateral climate funds (MCFs) serving the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement were: addressing the distinct and heightened risks they experience from the climate crisis, strengthening the resilience of child-critical social services and empowering children as agents of change. “The findings are stark,” said Kabita Bose, Country Director at Plan International Bangladesh. “Urgent and effective investment is key to adapting to climate change and is particularly critical for children, especially girls who are highly susceptible to the short and long-term impacts. Yet current spending almost ignores children entirely – this needs to change.” The report found that out of all the money given by MCFs for climate-related projects over 17 years until March 2023, only a small portion (2.4%) met all three of the requirements which amounted to only $1.2 billion. The report also says that this number likely reflects an overestimate, meaning that even less money may have met all the requirements. “Children, especially those already affected by inequality and discrimination, have done the least to cause climate change but are most affected by it. Climate finance offers an opportunity to tackle these injustices by considering the needs and perspectives of children,” said Kelley Toole, Global Head of Climate Change at Save the Children. “This has been woefully inadequate to date but can and must change. To tackle the climate crisis, we must put child rights at the heart of our response and ensure children’s voices are heard”. While MCFs provide a relatively small share of overall climate finance, the degree to which these funds consider children matters greatly. MCFs have a vital role to play in agenda-setting, and in catalyzing and coordinating investments by other public and private financial institutions, including at national levels, which are necessary to drive a broader change. Children are disproportionately vulnerable to water and food scarcity, water-borne diseases, and physical and psychological trauma, all of which have been linked to both extreme weather events and slow-onset climate effects. There is also evidence that changing weather patterns are disrupting children’s access to basic services such as education, healthcare, and clean drinking water.