SDG 13 (Sustainable Development Goal 13) focuses on climate action to combat climate change and its impacts by taking urgent action. Climate change and environmental degradation are issues that impact the rights of every child, especially children who live in developing countries and cannot have their basic needs met, like food, clean water, and a safe, strong house to live in. An estimated 356 million children live in extreme poverty today! That is why the United Nations is trying to help those in need to help everyone have equal opportunities by creating programs such as the Global coalition to end child poverty programs to help children are not able to meet their basic needs.
Global coalition to end child poverty programs
One method in which the United Nation seeks to end child poverty is by promoting better data systems for monitoring child poverty in all its dimensions at the national, regional and global levels and to raise awareness and understanding about the impacts of poverty on children in richer and poorer countries, and the practical solutions to address it.
Effects of climate change
Climate change disadvantages children in many different ways, sometimes in ways you can’t see. For example, every year, over half a million children under the age of 5 die from air-pollution-related causes. Even more will suffer lasting damage to their developing brains and lungs. Pneumonia remains the leading infectious cause of death among children under 5, killing approximately 2,400 children a day.
Climate change is a danger to a child’s ability to grow and learn, which can impact their brains, education, and growth. Today, for the first time, a global generation of children will grow up in a world made far more dangerous and uncertain by changing climate and a degraded environment. UNICEF works with governments and other organizations at a global, national, and local level to ensure that children can live in a safe and clean environment.
Take action!
If you are interested, here is UNICEF’S full action plan in place to combat climate change around the globe! This plan indicates what you as an individual can do to help this rising issue! Think about how you can help and keep yourself educated with games listed below. Let’s make the world a better place starting one individual at a time!
References
Games:
https://climatekids.nasa.gov/menu/play/
Author: Kaitlyn Lee
Editor: Rose He
Campus UNICEF 