10 December 2009 – For the children of the South Pacific Island of Tuvalu, evenings at the beach is the happiest time of the day. But if global warming continues and sea levels rise, in 50 years time Tuvalu’s children will find it hard to find a place to play. They may even be in danger of losing their home.

From December 7-18, the UN conference on climate change is taking place in Copenhagen and Save the Children isn’t missing the chance to speak out that climate change poses the biggest threat to children this century. Children should not be responsible for climate change but they stand to be affected the most. For this reason SC is calling on world leaders to sign an ambitious agreement to help the world’s children cope with the effects of global warming.

Climate change is caused by greenhouse gas emissions, a by-product of development tracing back to the industrial revolution. Climate change-induced natural disasters are becoming more and more frequent, increasing the spread of disease, accelerating the melting of glaciers and snow caps, upsetting the natural distribution of water and destroying biodiversity. These environmental consequences are a huge threat to the world’s socio-economic development and to the future of mankind.

Children will no doubt bear the brunt of global warming. Today nearly nine million children perish before their fifth birthday from pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria – all preventable diseases, the spread of which will only worsen as a result of climate change. For example, it is estimated that by 2080, the number of people with malaria will increase by an additional 260 to 320 million; the number of children dying from diarrhoea is expected to increase by 10%; and by 2050, the number of children suffering from malnutrition will increase by 250 million.

As if this wasn’t enough, global warming makes it more difficult for poor communities to access clean water, reducing their ability to produce nutritious food and in turn increasing food prices. Climate change increases the frequency and intensity of natural disasters with the average number of natural disasters expected to increase from 200 per year to more than 400. This number is expected to increase by as much as 320% in the next 20 years. SC predicts that within the next 10 years there will be 175 million children affected by natural disasters.

“Climate change is no longer a distant, futuristic scenario and the devastating effect on children’s lives is already apparent,” said Mimi Jakobsen CEO, Save the Children Denmark. “Climate change has put us at risk of not meeting the Millennium Development Goals, and even taking several steps backwards from what has been accomplished to date,” said Rudolph von Bernuth, Emergency Director for Save the Children. The Millenium Development Goal Four aims to reduce the mortality rate of children under five by two thirds by the year 2015.

SC believes that two measures are needed to address climate change: first is taking proper steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; second and more important, is for rich countries to provide financial support to poorer countries, to help them adapt to the existing problems of climate change. This support is urgently required and should first be directed towards improving access to water and sanitation conditions in developing countries.

SC stress that while children will be the most affected by climate change, they should not be treated as victims. Children have the right to participate in the decisions relating to climate change. Donors, government and international and local NGO groups must ensure that there is a suitable forum for children to be heard in the international climate change debate.

SC is already running campaigns to help children affected by climate change. Among those is the corner stone child-centred Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) programme aimed help children adapt to climate change and its most serious impact – increasingly intense and frequent natural disasters. The SC International Alliance has launched the DRR programme in 40 countries worldwide, tailoring it local conditions, encompassing disaster prevention, reduction and relief. Governments, relief agencies or villages are all able to take a leading role in DRR implementation. SC encourages child participation in the formulation of risk evaluation and response plans, disaster evacuation drills and disaster awareness raising in their local community.

With the aim of realising the MDG Four on global action on health, SC launched the “Newborn and Child Survival Campaign” in September this year, another way in which SC is responding to effects of climate change on children.