2023-10-06 05:15:26
Extreme weather disasters driven by climate change, from floods and storms to droughts and forest fires, caused 43.1 million child displacements from 2016 to 2021, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned in a report published on Thursday .
In a daunting report, the UN agency detailed the harrowing stories of some of the affected children, while report co-author Laura Healy revealed to AFP that the data is only “the tip of the iceberg” with many more children possibly affected.
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“We took our things to the road, where we lived for weeks,” recaps Khalid Abdul Azim, whose flooded village could only be accessed by boat.
In 2017, sisters Mia and Maia Bravo watched their trailer engulfed in flames in California from the back of their family’s minivan.
“I was scared, in shock,” Maia indicated in the report. “She stayed up all night.”
Statistics on internal displacement caused by climate disasters generally do not take into account the ages of the victims.
But Unicef worked together with the non-governmental Internal Displacement Monitoring Center to clear the data and reveal the hidden balance of the children.
Between 2016 and 2021, four types of climate disasters – storms, floods, droughts and fires, the frequency of which has increased with climate change – led to 43.1 million child displacements in 44 countries, according to the report.
95% of these displacements were due to floods and storms.
“It is the equivalent of nearly 20,000 child displacements per day,” Healy told AFP, highlighting how the affected children are at risk of suffering other traumas such as being separated from their parents or being victims of child traffickers.
The data reflect the number of displacements and not the number of children affected, given that the same infant can experience displacement more than once.
The numbers do not allow us to distinguish between those evacuated before a weather event and those who were forced to move in the middle of a disaster.
According to Healy, the number of displacements due to drought has been “radically underreported,” as droughts are less frequent and, therefore, more difficult to quantify.
“That is just the tip of the iceberg based on the data we have available,” added the expert.
“The reality is that with the impacts of climate change, or better monitoring of displacement when this is a slow-onset event, the number of children uprooted from their homes is going to be much higher,” he explained.
What does Unicef propose?
The Unicef report offers some partial predictions about specific events.
Floods related to river overflowing may cause an estimated 96 million child displacements over the next 30 years, while cyclonic winds may force the displacement of another 10.3 million, it says. The storms could also cause about 7.2 million displacements.
None of these estimates include preventive evacuations.
“For those who have been forced to flee, the fear and impact can be especially devastating, due to worry about whether they can return home, resume their classes, or have to move once again,” the director explained in a statement. UNICEF executive Catherine Russell.
“Moving could have saved their lives, but it is also very damaging,” he added.
“As the impacts of climate change escalate, so will climate-related displacement. “We have the tools and knowledge to respond to this growing challenge for children, but we are acting too slowly,” according to Russell.
UNICEF called on world leaders to address this issue at the next climate summit (COP28) taking place in Dubai in November and December.
Healy says children, including those who have already been displaced, must be prepared “to live in a world of changing climate.”
Even if the increasingly intense effects of climate change are affecting large areas of the planet, the Unicef report sheds light on particularly vulnerable countries.
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China, India and the Philippines are the countries with the highest number of displacements (close to 23 million in six years), due to their huge populations and geographical location, but also because of their preventive evacuation plans.
Proportionately, Africa and small island nations are most at risk. In Dominica, 76% of all minors were displaced between 2016 and 2021. In Cuba and Saint Martin, this figure was 30%.
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