The UN Children’s Fund recently warned that weather disasters fueled by climate change, from floods to droughts, storms and wildfires, have sparked 43.1 million child displacements from 2016 to 2021, as a sweeping report on the issue detailed heart wrenching stories of affected kids, which co-author Laura Healy said revealed only the “tip of the iceberg,” with many more likely affected.
Statistics on internal displacements caused by climate disasters generally do not account for the age of the victims, but UNICEF worked with non-governmental Internal Displacement Monitoring Center to unpick the data and reveal the hidden toll on children.
From 2016 to 2021, four types of climate disasters (floods, storms, droughts, and wildfires) – the frequency of which has increased due to global warming, led to 43.1 million child displacements in 44 countries, the report said.
Ninety-five of those displacements were caused by floods and storms, as is probably the case in the Philippines. “The reality is with the impacts of climate change, or better tracking of displacement when it comes to slow onset events, that the number of children who are uprooted from their homes is going to be much greater.”
China, India, and the Philippines are the countries with the largest number of displacements, with nearly 23 million in six years, because of their huge populations and geographic locations, and their preventive evacuation plans.
UNICEF called on world leaders to take up the issue at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai in November and December.
It said children, including those already forced to move, must be prepared “to live in a climate change world.”
Displaced families, children included, are such a common sight in the Philippines every time a natural disaster occurs, be it a typhoon, earthquake, volcanic eruption, which come with the misfortune of being located in the ring of fire and typhoon belt. Preemptive and forced evacuations happen so often that our country should be the world leader and trend setter in providing such facilities to those affected. However, adding to our misfortunes is an apathetic and reactive government that has so far failed to capitalize on that wealth of experience in dealing with the internally displaced during times of disaster
We will not be able to do much when it comes to our geographic location and situation, but if our government puts more effort into providing ready, resilient, and sustainable evacuation centers, the millions of families and children that experience displacement during disasters would certainly benefit from positive developments in that branch of government service.*
