One in 8 children significantly impacted by the 10 biggest extreme weather events this year

Toronto, November 7, 2024 – About one in 8 children globally have been significantly impacted by the 10 biggest extreme weather events so far this year, having to flee their homes, becoming reliant on aid or missing out on school, Save the Children said.

As world leaders prepare to meet at the COP29 summit in Azerbaijan next week, new analysis by the child rights organization showed that from 1 January until 29 October, about 300 million children across Asia, Africa and Brazil  – some 12.5% of the total child population of 2.4 billion – were affected by the worst extreme climate events [1].

These included:

• Tropical Storm Trami, which tore through the Philippines weeks ago and suspended schools for 19.5 million children [2];
• Drought in Southern Africa which the UN says is the worst in over 100 years, putting 12.2 million children in need of humanitarian assistance;
• Flooding across West and Central Africa that forced 10 million children out of school;
• An unprecedented heatwave across South Asia which drove 256 million children out of school;
• Typhoon Yagi, which tore through Southeast Asia in September and put around 1.5 million children in need of humanitarian assistance.

Children were also impacted by other instances of floods, cyclones and monsoons across Bangladesh, the Horn of Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), South Sudan, and Brazil.

With climate change, extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe, with children often bearing the brunt of these disasters. The World Meteorological Organization has estimated the number of global extreme weather events has increased five-fold in the past 50 years.

Save the Children said the analysis showing the extent to which children are impacted highlights the urgency to put children at the centre of every level of the climate change response at the COP29 climate change summit in Baku, Azerbaijan.

With the majority of the children affected living in low- and middle-income countries, world leaders need more than ever to prioritize the voices and experiences of children living with poverty, inequality and discrimination.

Floods in northeast Nigeria uprooted Kyariyam*, 12, and her family from their home in September. They are now living in a camp for displaced people [3].

She said: “The flood destroyed everything in our home […] It washed away our clothes, school uniforms, and books. It’s something I will never forget. This is the first time I’ve ever seen such a flood. I never imagined water could submerge an entire house in just a few minutes.

“Half our school was completely destroyed. I feel really bad that I’m no longer able to go to school. I constantly worry about how I will catch up.”

Recent research from the World Bank found that on average, a staggering 400 million students have experienced school closures from extreme weather since 2022 [4].

Kyariyam said she wants world leaders at COP29 to step up to support her community.

She said: “I would ask them to help rebuild our communities and schools. They should create proper water channels to prevent future floods. We also need support with school uniforms and books to return to learning.” [5]

According to the UN, human-induced climate change has also aggravated the El Nino-linked drought that has scorched land and destroyed harvests across southern Africa for most of this year, in a region where 70% of the population relies on agriculture to survive. The UN has called this the worst drought in 100 years.

Zinhle, 14, is from Zimbabwe, where planting was delayed by two months or more, significantly affecting maize yields, and putting 7.6 million people – 47% of the population – at risk of acute hunger.

Her mother – a single parent – used to sell goats which provided her with the means to pay for school fees. But almost all their livestock died due to shortage of food and water.

Zinhle said: “We ploughed our fields, but all the crops were burnt by the sun, and we didn’t get anything from the fields. At home, we used to eat three meals a day, but now we eat two meals.”

Zinhle said some of her friends have been so badly affected that they have had to drop out of school to seek work in a mine.

She continued: “I would like to tell the global leaders that the drought is affecting us. They should come up with solutions that will keep us in school because if we drop out of school, we won’t have a good future.” [6]

At COP29 in Baku, Save the Children is calling for children’s rights, voices, and unique vulnerabilities to be factored into the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG) that will be agreed this year as well as national and global adaptation plans. [6] Save the Children is also calling for improved opportunities for child’s participation at COP, so that they can be involved in the decision-making that affects them.

Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children International, said:

“Climate change is not just a problem for future generations – it is a current and devastating crisis which this year alone has significantly impacted 1 in 8 of the world’s children. It leaves many fleeing their homes, becoming reliant on humanitarian aid or missing out on their education.

“This reality exposes a glaring inequality gap, with lower-and middle-income countries bearing the brunt of life-altering extreme weather events.

“This is a matter of climate justice. At this year’s COP, the rights, voices, and unique vulnerabilities of children must be a top priority in critical discussions on climate finance, adaptation and the wider negotiations. This is not just a climate crisis, it’s a child rights crisis – and urgent action from world leaders is non-negotiable.”

ENDS

Content of Zinhle in Zimbabwe available here: Save the Children – Search Result

Content of Kyariyam* in Nigeria available here: Save the Children – Search Result

Masterlink available here: Save the Children – Search Result

Notes to editors:

[1] UNICEF estimates there are 2.4 billion children in the world. 302 million is 12.5% of 2.4 billion.

[2] Data on school suspensions from the Philippines Ministry of Education

[3] Displacement exposes children to a myriad of risks beyond the already distressing loss of their homes and possessions, Save the Children said, from learning loss, to life-shattering hunger and malnutrition, to protection risks like forced labour, recruitment into armed groups or early marriage. Save the Children research found that the number of girls at extreme risk of facing the double blow of climate change and child marriage is set to increase by 33% by 2050.

[4] Even when schools remain open during periods of extremely high temperatures, children are sometimes not well enough to attend, and research has pointed towards the impact of high temperatures on children’s ability to concentrate and learn, with one US study finding that a 0.55 C warmer school year reduced that year’s learning by 1%.

[5] Save the Children has provided Kyariyam and other children in her camp with psychosocial support; evening classes to make up for lost school; a child-friendly space to support her and other children to engage with each other and play, and food.

[6] Save the Children has been supporting Zinhle’s school through installing a solar-powered piped water scheme providing water to the school, community and livestock. Access to water at school has now enabled the school to establish a nutrition garden which now supports the school feeding program where children are provided with warm meals during lunch time. Save the Children has also been complementing the school’s feeding program supported by the Government through providing additional food items such as beans, cooking oil, rice among others.

[7] A report last year by Save the Children and partners found that just 2.4% of climate finance from four key global climate funds can be classified as sufficiently considering children.

* name has been changed to protect anonymity

As the world’s leading independent child rights organization, Save the Children works in 113 countries, tackling climate across everything we do, including health, education, protection and humanitarian work, as well as child-led adaptation, disaster risk reduction and supporting and empowering child campaigners across the world to speak out.

Save the Children campaigns for and with children through “Generation Hope”, our global campaign calling for urgent action on the climate crisis and economic inequality to create a safe, healthy and happy future for children.

Methodology:

To identify the biggest extreme weather disasters of 2024, we used the EM-DAT disaster database as a starting point, looking for disasters which EM-DAT identifies as having “affected” the most people. While EM-DAT separates disaster events by countries, we grouped together countries that experienced a common disaster – e.g. South-east Asian countries hit by Typhoon Yagi or countries in southern Africa experiencing the El Niño-linked drought.  We supplemented EMDAT disaster data with Save the Children’s own reporting on extreme weather linked disasters with major impacts on children in 2024, e.g. heatwave-induced school closures.

Since EM-DAT does not have a single working definition of “affected people”, we individually researched the disasters on our list for the direct impact of each one on children, taking the biggest number of children among: children rendered in need of humanitarian aid after a disaster (most often taken from UN appeals and situation reports); children displaced; children that saw their school closed and children who went hungry, correct as of 29 October 2024.  When age-disaggregated data was not available which is often the case, the child share (0-17) was estimated using the national child share according to the UN World Population Prospects.

The total figure is an estimate since numbers of people in need of humanitarian assistance or affected by disasters are sometimes estimates themselves, based on the best available information at the time. Numbers of people affected by a disaster also change over time – we used the maximum people affected, subtracting from the global total instances where disasters likely hit the same population twice this year.