Firm foundations for child-centred climate resilience

Children are particularly vulnerable to climate change. They form a sizable proportion of the marginalised group, concentrated in developing countries, that already struggles to cope with climate impacts. Yet children are not given priority in resilience interventions. Some NGO programmes have identified the need, but responses are not yet comprehensive and widely inclusive. This briefing reviews the challenges children face and discusses how best to build child-centred resilience. It proposes universal foundations, arguing that climate finance should provide children with a shock-responsive ‘safety net’ that prioritises their access to social assistance programmes. Development must also go beyond crisis interventions to tackle underlying causes of vulnerability. And it must help the most vulnerable, not just the easy to reach. Children’s own voices and agency need to be part of the solution, at all levels. These issues are an important challenge for intra- and inter-generational climate justice.