At the start of the COP28, UNICEF is urgently calling to take progressive steps to preserve a planet worth living on.
The climate crisis is not just changing the planet, it is changing children. It is affecting children everywhere – their lives, their communities and their health.
Children's bodies and minds are uniquely vulnerable to pollution, deadly diseases and extreme weather, and they are disproportionately affected by the impacts of disasters, environmental degradation and the climate crisis. Yet their needs and perspectives are almost totally absent in climate policies, action and investment at all levels.
The COP28 Climate Conference is a critical point in the fight against the climate crisis, and the fight for children’s rights and wellbeing.
World leaders and the international community must ensure child rights are prominent within the key outcomes of COP28, so that the needs of children are respected, promoted and considered in all aspects of climate action in line with the Paris Agreement.
At COP28, UNICEF is calling on leaders to:
- Elevate children within the final COP28 Cover Decision and convening an expert dialogue on children and climate change.
- Embed children and intergeneration equity in the Global Stocktake (GST).
- Include children and climate resilient essential services within the final decision on the Global Goal for Adaptation (GGA).
- Make the Loss and Damage Fund and funding arrangements child-responsive with child rights embedded in the fund's governance and decision-making process.
UNICEF will continue to call for meaningful child and youth participation in climate policy making and at COP28, with the inclusion of children and youth in all delegations and negotiation teams.
UNICEF is working with more than 100 child and youth climate activists at COP28, including from countries worst affected by the climate crisis.
Contact for media:
Committee for UNICEF Switzerland and Liechtenstein
Jürg Keim, Media Office,
044 317 22 41, j.keim@unicef.ch