Nearly half of the world’s children exposed to at least three overlapping climate threats – UNICEF

NEW YORK, 16 June 2026 – Nearly half of the world’s children – or 1.1 billion – are now exposed to at least three overlapping climate hazards, threatening their health, education, and survival, according to a new UNICEF report launched today. Almost every child in the world, including in the UK, faces at least one climate hazard, while more than 4 million could face as many as six overlapping threats, the report warns.

The Children’s Climate Risk Report 2026 uses the latest available data to map children’s exposure to the eight most frequent climate threats, including coastal floods, droughts, extreme heat, fires, heatwaves, riverine floods, sand and dust storms, and tropical storms. For the first time, the report reveals exactly where – and how intense – multiple and overlapping climate threats are affecting children and the essential social services they rely on, and how governments can take concrete actions to respond.

“The lives of children continue to be upended by the impact of heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, and floods,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Half of the world’s children are now living with at least three overlapping climate threats shaping their daily lives.”

Drought, extreme heat, and heatwaves are the most widespread combination of climate hazards, with over 296 million children living in areas exposed to all three conditions, according to the findings. The second most common combination – drought, extreme heat, and tropical storms – leaves more than 115 million children worldwide exposed to these overlapping threats.

In the Sahel region of Africa, one of the hardest hit, more than 4 million children face the triple threat of heatwaves, extreme heat, and sand and dust storms, while in countries across Asia, for example Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Pakistan, children are exposed to more climate hazards at once and at a higher intensity than anywhere else in the world.

High-income countries are not immune to overlapping climate shocks. In Italy, for example, more than 6 million children are exposed to prolonged heatwaves and drought, the data show. Yet the country illustrates how investment in climate change adaptation can mitigate some of the risks children face, while highlighting the need for further action as the climate crisis intensifies.

In addition to the eight most frequent climate hazards, the report analyses children’s exposure to air pollution and malaria; two risks that are highly sensitive to the effects of climate change. Data show that air pollution affects nearly every child globally, while 1 billion children are exposed to malaria, adding another layer of danger for children already facing multiple climate hazards.

The report also presents a framework to analyse the different types of risks children face, based on their exposure to climate shocks and their vulnerability, determined by access to essential social services such as healthcare, clean water, education, and more. The approach can be applied in different ways, from looking at risks related to individual or multiple climate hazards to examining risks across sectors, revealing the threats children face across different contexts.

For example, considering multiple hazards and vulnerabilities together, children in landlocked* and fragile* countries such as the Central African Republic or Chad face overlapping climate hazards while also lacking access to basic services, making it much harder for them to cope and recover. Meanwhile, all children in 24 Small Island Developing States*, including from Haiti to Vanuatu, are exposed to tropical storms, which can disrupt entire islands at once and overwhelm essential services, the report notes.

Without urgent efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, climate hazards will grow more frequent and severe, placing even greater strain on government budgets and systems, threatening children’s well-being, the report warns.

To protect children’s rights from climate threats and adapt to growing environmental changes, UNICEF is calling on governments, businesses and relevant actors to:

• Reduce emissions and take ambitious action to fulfil existing international commitments, grounded in the best available science, including the urgent phasing-out of fossil fuels and a just transition towards renewable energy.
• Protect children through inclusive climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and responses to loss and damage that prioritise the resilience of social services, ensuring that children and child-critical services are included in national adaptation plans and sector strategies, disaster risk governance, preparedness and response plans. This includes, for example, developing safe and green learning facilities and climate‑resilient health care facilities, securing children’s food security, making multi‑hazard early warning systems effective for children and accessible to the services they rely on, and strengthening the efficiency of water and sanitation services, as well as shock‑responsive social protection systems.
• Empower children and young people to meaningfully participate in climate action by investing in climate education, knowledge and skills, and by strengthening the capacity of decision makers and experts to respect children’s rights to be heard, freedom of expression, and participation in decisions that affect their lives.

Ahead of London Climate Action Week (20-28 June) UNICEF UK warns that protecting childhood in a changing climate requires sustained investment from the UK Government in the systems children rely on to survive and thrive, including healthcare, nutrition, education, safe water and social protection.

However, reductions in UK aid spending risk further devastating consequences for children at precisely the moment climate and other pressures, including health, conflict and poverty, are growing. Yet this period of change also presents an opportunity to ensure Official Development Assistance (ODA) is more intentionally focused on children, who are among the most vulnerable to escalating climate risks and most critical to building long-term resilience.

Joanna Rea, Director of Advocacy at UNICEF UK, said:

“Childhood is being cut short by climate change – and reductions in UK aid risk further devastating consequences for children.

“As climate impacts intensify, investing in resilient health systems, education, nutrition, safe water and social protection is not optional, it is essential. Choosing to invest in childhood is one of the most effective ways to ensure children can survive and thrive, while building stronger, healthier and more resilient communities.

“The UK Government’s choice is clear. They must keep children at the heart of spending decisions and allocate at least 25 per cent of UK Official Development Assistance to child-focused programmes so children do not continue to pay the price for the climate crisis.”

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Note to editors

Key UK data from Global Hazard Database:

• 99% of children in the UK are exposed to at least one climate hazard
• 8.6 million children (60%) exposed to at least two climate hazards, mainly tropical storms and droughts
• 1.6 million (11%) exposed to at-least three overlapping hazards
• 11 million children (86%) exposed to droughts and 1.5 million to severe heatwaves.
• 9 million children (over 60%) exposed to storms
• 13.7 million children (almost 96%) exposed to ambient air pollution above WHO minimum thresholds.

To better understand the potential severity and frequency of climate threats throughout a child’s life, the methodology uses a probabilistic model based on a 100-year return period. This approach captures extreme climate events that are highly likely to occur in any given year and highlights the most significant hazards children are exposed to.

The CCRR 2026 looks at children’s exposure to eight climate hazards: coastal floods, droughts, extreme heat, fires, heatwaves, riverine floods, sand and dust storms, and tropical storms, as well as two climate-sensitive hazards such as air pollution and vector borne diseases; while considering inherent vulnerabilities of children across seven dimensions: water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), nutrition, protection, health, education, poverty, and child survival.

This report includes updated data and models covering a broader range of hazards and vulnerabilities, compared to UNICEF’s 2021 The climate crisis is a child rights crisis report. The analysis now encompasses most countries and territories – including Small Island Developing States – and utilises a pixel-level multi-hazard approach, providing higher-resolution data at a gridded scale. Hazard data are now available for areas as small as 100 square kilometres in each country, with some hazards mapped at a 100-metre resolution.

*Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) are developing nations that lack territorial access to the sea. Often, the development of LLDCs is constrained by isolation from world markets and high trade costs.

*Fragility: According to the OECD, it is the combination of exposure to risk and insufficient resilience of a state, system and/or community to manage, absorb or mitigate those risks. In this report, countries classified as experiencing extreme or high fragility are grouped together and referred to as “fragile.”

* Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are a distinct group of nations characterized by their small size and remote island geography. SIDS’ unique vulnerabilities include their small size, remoteness, narrow resource and export base, and exposure to external economic shocks.

Link to the Children’s Climate Risk Report here.

Multimedia materials available here.

UNICEF will be attending London Climate Action Week (LCAW) to highlight that protecting childhood in a changing climate requires functional, sustainable systems such as education, health and social protection – and that this is critical to climate action itself. To arrange interviews or briefings with spokespeople in attendance or regarding this report, please contact Jack Seal (EMAIL) or Ceri Gautama (EMAIL).

UNICEF UK will also be launching a new policy briefing on how primary healthcare interventions address the infectious disease risks (e.g malaria, dengue) that are increasing with climate change, available in July. To receive this briefing please contact the press contact(s) listed below.