THE CLIMATE AND INEQUALITY CRISIS IN NUMBERS
The crisis is having a profound impact on children's rights, especially for children most affected by poverty and discrimination.
83% of children
participating in our survey have noticed climate
change or economic inequality affecting the
world around them.
744 MILLION
children are living in poverty and exposed to
high climate risk.
76% OF GLOBAL WEALTH
is owned by the wealthiest 10% of people
globally.
CARBON EMISSIONS
of the world’s wealthiest 1% are double those
of the poorest 50%.
76% OF GLOBAL WEALTH
is owned by the wealthiest 10% of people globally.
GOVERNMENTS SPEND $5.9 TRILLION
on fossil fuel subsidies each year. $4.2 trillion is needed per year to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in lower income countries.
Climate change is commonly described by policy‑makers, business leaders and media as the greatest threat to the future.
But 54,500 children from 41 countries left us in no doubt that the climate threat isn’t about tomorrow. For the world’s 2.4 billion children, the climate crisis is a global emergency today.
Children are experiencing changes in weather patterns, like successive years of drought, and a rise in extreme weather events like flooding and cyclones.
The climate emergency is deeply connected to inequality.
Our dialogues with children confirmed that the climate emergency and issues of inequality are deeply connected, and cannot be dealt with in isolation from each other. Across the world, inequalities are deepening the emergency and its impacts on children, most notably across two key dimensions.
The climate emergency is a child rights crisis. Children are bearing the brunt of the emergency because they are at a unique stage of physical and emotional development, putting them at greater risk during disasters and times of hardship.1 As one 16‑year‑old boy living in Egypt observed, “Children are more vulnerable than adults, so that the factories that produce smoke harm them.”
Between May and August 2022, Save the Children staff engaged with more than 54,500 children from 41 countries through in-person consultations, interviews and surveys. Our aim was to listen to children about their experiences of climate change and inequality, and the changes that they want adults to make, in order to shape our own work and campaigning. While dialogues were structured by common guidelines and a set of core questions, colleagues engaged with children in ways that were appropriate to their local context and that supported children in their own activism.
While we did not aim for a scientifically representative sample, the dialogues reached different groups of children in higher and lower income countries in all regions, including children who experience discrimination as a result of sex, race, disability, migratory status, income level, indigeneity or identity.
Child campaign group in Australia
Some of the children we spoke to had previous engagement with us through our programmes and campaigns, but many had not. Some were experienced campaigners, while others had limited prior knowledge of the issues. Most children we spoke to were aged 8–17, though some young people aged 18–22 participated.
The dialogues brought out rich insights, many of which appear in this report and which have informed our analysis and recommendations.
These insights have deepened our understanding of children’s experiences and priorities, and of how an international organisation like Save the Children can support the bold child activism that is under way in all corners of the globe.
Climate change is like a monster that destroys us. There are storms, hurricanes, it’s very hot, there’s a lot of rain. We are not taking care of the planet; we are filling it with garbage.
- 15‑year‑old girl in Colombia
Children have longer to live with the rising impacts of global heating and climatic changes. Previous research in Save the Children’s Born Into the Climate Crisis report found a child born in 2020 will experience on average nearly seven times more heatwaves in their lifetime compared with a person born in 1960, and nearly three times the exposure to crop failure.2
Children in our dialogues observed that communities and households most affected by poverty, inequality and discrimination have the least protection and, when disaster hits, have less to spend on recovery.
This is a grave injustice. Children who have done the least to cause the climate emergency – or design unequal economic systems – are suffering the most from their impacts.
Inequalities in income, wealth and power are often intertwined with social inequalities and discrimination by race, disability, indigeneity, displacement or migration status and sexual orientations, gender identities, expression and sexual characteristics.
“Not all people are financially equal, not everyone has the privilege to be able to live in a safe home and those people are facing a greater danger.”
- 13‑year‑old boy in Gaza
“I want leaders to stop taking bribes.”
15‑year‑old boy in Sierra Leone
"We must be brave, we must fight for our dreams." Sergio, 16, Columbia
A number of children shared insights about how communities affected by inequality and discrimination have limited political influence to push for policies or changes in government and business practice that would better protect them and the planet. Indigenous People’s communities and those facing racial discrimination were noted to be particularly marginalised. As one young woman from the Indigenous Sámi community in Norway shared with us, “We meet a lot of resistance in pretty much everything we do or say.”
By contrast, those who are profiting from industries that harm the environment often have more power to influence public spending, regulation and opinions in ways that undermine prospects for stronger climate, environmental and social policies.
The power dynamic at play here between climate change and inequality creates a vicious cycle.
Children who already face hardship are pushed deeper into poverty and marginalisation. At the same time, incentives for changes in government and business policy and practice that would address the crisis are undermined. To turn the tide on the climate emergency, as a world we must recognise and understand its connections with inequality – and address the two issues together.
Children are not passive victims
Children are bearing the brunt of the climate and inequality crisis, but their views, actions and demands for change are among the boldest and most tenacious. In recent years, children’s and young people’s movements have helped to push the climate emergency up the political agenda. Over 70% of children who responded to our survey believed that adults should be doing more to address the issues, and 35% reported they were already campaigning themselves on the climate crisis or inequality, or wanted to start. But many feel they are being ignored. As one 12-year-old boy in Nigeria said, “We try to tell adults things about us and how the community is affecting us, but they don’t listen to us because we are small.”
Children have insightful ideas for what needs to be done to address the crisis, based on their experiences and unique understanding of how children are being affected and therefore what should be done.
Many of the children we engaged with are frustrated at a perceived lack of action by governments, business and adults intheir communities, and a number shared with us the impact that this has had on their mental health or that of their peers.
“Giving young people a voice and platform to
speak from would be the most useful thing; they
already have the ideas.”
15‑year‑old girl in Guatemala
“Unity is the greatest strength of all, so we need to stand together in this fight.”
Child in India
But despite this, most children in our dialogues were firm in their belief that change is possible. This gives us hope. And it inspires us to translate hope into concrete action for a greener and more just planet. All adults have a responsibility to listen to and act on the demands children are making. States, in particular, must fulfil their responsibilities under the international human and children’s rights frameworks, including the responsiblility to take into account as a primary consideration the impacts on children of decisions that affect them. Businesses must also fulfil their responsibility to respect and support children’s rights. These responsibilities have been neglected for decades. The world would look very different today had they not been.
Delivering change will not always be straightforward. It will require grappling with complexity, navigating trade-offs and making the difficult decisions needed to rewire our economic and social systems – by rewriting the rules and incentives that structure them.8
As children highlighted in our dialogues, this is a challenge that must be addressed through partnership – across sectors and geographies; between governments, civil society and business; and crucially, with children and their communities.
Driving systemic change: five key entry points
The exact changes that are needed in policy and practice will vary according to context and must be defined in line with the responsibilities of states and business under the international human and children’s rights frameworks, which includes consulting with children and taking their best interests into account.
However, five key entry points to addressing the combined climate and inequality crisis have particular potential for driving systemic change. We have identified these by drawing on the ideas that children shared with us through our dialogues, together with experience from our programmes work, wider research and examples of innovative action already being taken in communities across the world. The five entry points are:
1.
Double down on climate and inequality through a unified approach. This must maximise potential synergies while at the same time reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and transitioning from fossil fuels at the pace required to limit global heating to 1.5ºC.
2.
Invest in children and their rights to health, nutrition, education, and protection from violence and poverty. This is a precondition for healthy economies and societies.
3.
Deliver justice at the climate and inequality frontlines to children and communities most affected – through anticipating shocks and building resilience to them, adapting essential services to minimise disruption, and supporting children experiencing losses and damage as a result of the climate emergency.
“The only thing I can think about is fear."
7‑year‑old boy in Italy
“I think you can still take action, you can save it, but it is now or never.”
Girl in Latin America
4.
Listen to children and act on their demands, ensuring they have meaningful say over decisions that affect their lives and the planet.
5.
Shift finance and power globally, so that lower income and climate‑vulnerable countries that have done the least to contribute to the global climate emergency have the finance they need to deliver on the key entry points listed above and have meaningful influence over the rules that govern the global financing system.
The scale, complexity and urgency of the climate and inequality crisis could lead to a sense of apathy and despair. We cannot allow that to happen. Instead, drawing inspiration from children’s demand for change, adults must maintain a sense of hope and belief in a greener and more just world. And then use this to drive action, putting our unlimited human capacity for creativity and collaboration to work to end the crisis and push for the protection and fulfilment of children’s rights.
We must listen and stand in solidarity with children; 2.4 billion reasons for urgent change.