This week, Capita published a new paper on child- and family-smart climate finance—a pivotal strategy to bolster climate adaptation across communities and drive sustainable development.
Adaptation and resilience are long-term global responses to the impacts of climate change, aimed at safeguarding people, livelihoods, and ecosystems. Enhancing the resilience of children, their families, and the infrastructure surrounding them is a crucial yet often overlooked and underfunded aspect of adaptation and resilience efforts.
Many have raised awareness about the disproportionate effects of climate change on young children and have explored child-centered adaptations. We already have many solutions. However, unless we secure the necessary funding to meet the needs of young children and their families, our ability to protect them from climate change will be limited.
The parties involved in the Paris Agreement recognize that adaptation measures must consider groups particularly vulnerable to climate-related risks, including pregnant women, young children, and their families. Yet from 2006 to March 2023, a mere 2.4% of major multilateral climate funds were allocated to child-responsive initiatives. Only 0.5% of global climate finance was explicitly dedicated to child- and family-sensitive adaptation and 0.01% to child-centered disaster-risk reduction. Furthermore, child-centered climate adaptation at the community level is a relatively new field that receives limited attention from stakeholders at all levels.
The paper not only argues for why we need child- and family-smart climate finance but also presents ways it can be implemented immediately. We need financing mechanisms that recognize the disparate impacts of climate change and the advantages of prioritizing young children and families. This financing will foster broader sustainable development and resilience across communities and society.
In the coming months, we will host roundtables in Washington, DC, and London to advance the argument for child- and family-smart climate finance and explore opportunities for implementing the concept in climate investment. We are eager to hear your thoughts on this innovative new approach to climate finance.