The Climate Crisis is a Children's Crisis
New Zealand’s one-year-olds will face up to five times as many climate-induced disasters than their grandparents. Children born in 2020 in Aotearoa New Zealand will experience 5.6 times as many heatwaves and 4.3 times as many droughts as well as 1.5 times as many wildfires, 1.4 times as many river floods and 1.3 as many crop failures under current trajectory of global emissions.
Who is affected by the Climate Crisis
The climate crisis directly affects children here in Aotearoa around the world and is the greatest threat to their survival, learning and protection. Without addressing the crisis directly, today's children will bear the greatest burden, especially those living in the most vulnerable regions in the world.
Without immediate action to address the climate crisis it will continue to rob children of their childhood and their futures, especially those living in the poorest places. Almost half of children worldwide are at extreme risk from the impacts of the climate crisis.
Change is possible and a better world for children can be built – but we must act now to stop the climate crisis.
Support Our Climate Change Work
What is COP26 and why does it matter
COP26 stands for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties. And this year it's taking place in Glasgow on 31 October – 12 November 2021. It is the biggest climate summit the UK has ever hosted.
What happens at COP26?
The past decade was the hottest on record. The world is already warming - if we don’t stop this now, we risk more damage. That’s why governments are coming together to discuss the climate emergency. Countries need to do more to cut their emissions to keep global temperatures well below 1.5 degrees.
Unless we call on the biggest countries to lead the world in addressing the crisis directly, today’s children will bear the burden, especially those living in regions most vulnerable to poverty and emergencies.
COP26: How we can make a difference
Save the Children is joining with hundreds of charities and groups calling for world leaders to protect children’s lives and futures. They must acknowledge that children are on the frontline of the climate crisis and put children at the heart of climate solutions and policies agreed at COP26.
What has the NZ Government committed for COP26?
Aotearoa aims to tackle climate change by halving its net greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Climate Change Minister James Shaw announced the new goal in a statement a day before COP 26 began in Glasgow.
The pledge is the Government’s new Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the global push to lower emissions, and is made under the framework first hammered out in the Paris Agreement.
The New Zealand Government has also committed $1.3billion to helping developing countries tackle climate change – with at least half going to the Pacific.
How to stop the Climate Crisis: solutions
For so many kids around the world, climate change isn't a distant, scary thing - it's their everyday life. Here's how we're supporting them:
- Providing water to communities battling drought
- Assisting with cash transfers for families whose livelihoods and homes have been hit
- Setting up early warning systems to predict when crisis might hit
But the scale of the threat means more work must be done. As the biggest threat to children’s lives and futures, we’re committed to doing all we can to tackle the climate crisis.
Take action now
Let's give children everywhere a reason to believe change is possible.
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