Between 2016 and 2021, floods, storms, droughts and fires, all climate change-related disasters, displaced 43.1 million children in 44 countries, according to a Unicef report published Thursday. The organization calls on heads of state to address this issue at COP28.
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Floods, storms, droughts… Disasters fueled by climate change have caused the displacement of 43.1 million children between 2016 and 2021, and this is just “the tip of the iceberg”, Unicef warned this Thursday, October 5, who regrets the lack of attention to these “invisible” victims.
In this report, the UN agency recounts the trauma of Juana, who was 9 years old in 2020 when the town where she lived in Guatemala was submerged by water after hurricanes Eta and Iota. Or the story of young sisters Mia and Maia, who watched as flames destroyed her mobile home in California. “We took our belongings on the highway, where we lived for weeks,” says Abdul Azim, a Sudanese boy whose village was flooded in August 2022 and could only be reached by boat.
Statistics on internal displacement linked to climate disasters do not usually take age into account, but Unicef has been working with the NGO Internal Displacement Monitoring Center to disaggregate the data and ensure that children are no longer “invisible”.
Global warming
Between 2016 and 2021, four types of climate disasters (floods, storms, droughts, fires), whose frequency and intensity increase with global warming, caused 43.1 million displacements of children in 44 countries, 95% of them linked to floods and storms, according to the report.
“That is equivalent to about 20,000 movements of children per day,” Laura Healy, one of the authors, told AFP, noting that these minors are exposed to multiple risks, from possible separation from their families to child trafficking networks.
These data formally count the number of child displacements and not the number of displaced children, since the same child can be displaced several times. They do not distinguish between previous evacuations and displacements after the meteorological phenomenon. And they “radically” underestimate drought-related displacements, which occur more slowly and are therefore more difficult to control, and do not include migrations.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg, according to the available data. The reality is that with the impact of climate change and better monitoring of movements due to slower weather phenomena, the number of uprooted children is going to be much higher,” he insists. Laura Healy.
“Too slow”
The report presents very partial projections for some specific events. Floods caused by overflowing rivers alone could displace 96 million children in the next 30 years, cyclonic winds could displace 10.3 million, and marine submergence caused by storms could displace 7.2 million. These figures do not include preventive evacuations.
“For those forced to flee, the fear and repercussions of such disasters can be especially devastating, with worry about whether they will ever be able to return home or to school, or whether they will be forced to leave again,” he said. Unicef director Catherine Russell in a statement.
“Displacement may have saved their lives, but it is a very destabilizing change,” he added. “We have the tools and knowledge to respond to this growing challenge for children, but we are moving too slowly.”
UNICEF is calling on world leaders to address this issue at the COP28 climate conference in Dubai in a few weeks. We have to prepare these children, including those who are already uprooted, “to live in a world in which the climate has changed,” emphasizes Laura Healy.
Although the growing impact of climate change is being felt everywhere, the report points the finger at some particularly vulnerable areas. The Philippines, India and China are the most affected countries in absolute numbers (almost 23 million displaced children in 6 years), due to their large population, their geographical location, but also to preventive evacuation plans.
But if we look at the proportion of displaced children, the image highlights the vulnerability of Africa and the smaller islands. Dominica has seen 76% of its children displaced in 6 years, Cuba and Saint Martin more than 30%, Vanuatu 25%, the Philippines 23%…
*AFP; adapted from its French original
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