Extreme weather events have displaced at least 43 million children over the past 6 years, the equivalent of 20,000 child displacements every single day.
While floods and storms triggered 95% of recorded cases between 2016 and 2021, the remaining – more than 2 million children – were forced to flee due to wildfires and drought.
The concerning findings are of a first-of-its-kind analysis by UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).
Extreme Weather, Conflict And Poor Governance In Focus
China, India and the Philippines dominate with 22.3 million child displacements, which the report attributes to the countries’ exposure to extreme weather and large child populations.
But the greatest proportion of child displacements were in small island states and in the Horn of Africa, where conflict, extreme weather and poor governance overlap.
South Sudan and Somalia saw the highest number of child displacements due to floods, affecting 11% and 12% of the child population, respectively.
Almost Certainly A Conservative Estimate
Displacement is traumatic regardless of age. But the consequences can be especially damaging for the young souls who may miss out on education and life-saving vaccines.
Children Displaced in a Changing Climate is the first global analysis of the children forced to abandon their homes due to floods, storms, droughts and wildfires.
Nonetheless, the report’s start numbers are almost certainly a conservative estimate due to major gaps in reporting drought and slow onset climate impacts such as rising sea level.
US Accounts For Three Quarters Of Cases Linked To Wildfires
The analysis detected 1.3 million child displacements due to drought, with Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Somalia by far the worst affected countries.
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Meanwhile, the US accounted for 610,000 out of 810,000 of child displacements linked to wildfires, with over half of the rest recorded in Canada, Australia, Turkey and Israel.
The worrying figures demonstrate the urgent need for states to plan,” said Adeline Neau, an Amnesty International researcher for Central America and Mexico.
