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Updated in October 2025 with latest climate impact data
Children are on the front line of the climate crisis
The world is getting hotter, and children are paying the price. In 2024—the hottest year on record—extreme heatwaves, floods, and droughts destroyed homes, wiped out crops, and pushed millions of families to breaking point.
170 million children experienced heatwaves in August 2024 - which included the hottest day ever on record.
Last year alone, 766 million children were exposed to extreme heatwaves—one in three of all children globally.
That's one child in every three.
These aren't distant statistics. They're children like Atika in Indonesia, who used to walk dangerous distances just to fetch water. Or families in Malawi watching their crops fail year after year.
Climate change isn't coming. It's here. And the children who've done the least to cause it are suffering the most.
Children should be climbing trees, wading in the sea and smelling flowers - not watching the world burn.
But there's hope. When communities have the right support—like solar-powered water systems, climate-smart schools, and early warning systems—children don't just survive. They thrive.
Here's what we're up against:
Climate Crisis: The Numbers
766 million children exposed to extreme heatwaves in 2023–2024
2024 was the hottest year on record
582 million people projected to face chronic hunger by 2030
Children in low-income countries are 4x more likely to face climate disasters
183 million children face the triple threat of poverty, climate risk, and conflict
We owe it to children to protect nature, today and for tomorrow
The climate emergency is deeply linked to inequality. The 774 million children facing both poverty and climate disasters have contributed least to global emissions but suffer most from the impacts. And as extreme weather intensifies—like the record heatwaves that hit 766 million children last year—these children are being pushed even deeper into hardship.
It’s our responsibility to help kids understand what’s happening, and to let them know that change is possible.
Explore this page: Answering the big questions about the climate crisis
Navigate to key sections by clicking on the links below:
How climate change affects children
Our 2022 research with 54,500 children across 41 countries revealed the scale of this crisis: 774 million children worldwide are living in poverty and facing high climate risk simultaneously. For 183 million of these children, conflict adds a third devastating threat.
When extreme weather hits, children face threats that adults don't. Their bodies can't regulate temperature as well, they need more water relative to their size, and malnutrition in early childhood causes permanent damage.
Immediate dangers include floods and storms destroying homes and schools, droughts killing crops and livestock, heatwaves causing illness, and dirty water spreading diseases like cholera.
Long-term impacts hit even harder. Children miss months or years of school when families are displaced. Families lose income, pushing children into labour or early marriage. Mental health suffers as children witness loss and uncertainty. And the damage done by malnutrition in early childhood lasts a lifetime.
The climate crisis is also driving conflict and displacement. In Somalia and Sudan, droughts have intensified fighting over scarce resources. In Bangladesh, rising sea levels are swallowing villages. Children are being uprooted from everything they know.
This isn't just about geography—it's about fairness. The wealthiest 1% of people globally are responsible for double the carbon emissions of the poorest 50%. Yet children in low-income countries, who've done nothing to cause the crisis, are four times more likely to face its worst impacts. Within those countries, the poorest children, those with disabilities, and displaced children are most vulnerable of all.
The children who've contributed least to global emissions are paying the highest price.
How does climate change affect children?
From it's impact on hunger and poverty, to the history of the climate crisis, and how it's impacting kids - in their own words. We explore the issues at play around this important topic.
What Save the Children is doing
When disaster strikes
Building resilience for tomorrow
We're also helping communities prepare for what's coming.
In Indonesia, we installed solar-powered water systems that pump clean water directly to communities in drought-affected East Sumba. Now children like Atika don't miss school to fetch water—and families have time to grow nutritious crops with the training we provide.
In Pakistan, we're building climate-smart schools designed to withstand flooding and stay cool during heatwaves, so children can keep learning no matter what the weather brings.
In Malawi, we're giving families cash grants alongside nutrition training and climate-resilient farming techniques, helping them cope with food price rises and crop failures.
In Vanuatu, we're funding community-led projects like solar food drying and storage systems, so families have food reserves when cyclones destroy their crops.
Building resilience for tomorrow
Children's voices matter in climate decisions. At the International Court of Justice in The Hague , we brought young climate activists like Vepaiamele,15. to share their experiences with world leaders. We're pushing for significant changes to national and international climate policy, more climate finance from wealthy countries to support vulnerable communities, and recognition that children have unique needs in climate adaptation plans.
Our 4 step plan to combat climate change for kids
As the biggest threat to children’s lives and futures, we’re committed to doing all we can to tackle the climate crisis.
Advancing our existing programmes
Advancing our existing programmes and testing innovative approaches to help communities and families adapt to climate change is key for supporting children and their families through this ongoing crisis.
Campaigning with Children
Children will be impacted the most as the climate crisis develops. We are campaigning with children to advocate to the international community that the climate crisis is a child rights crisis.
In the world's biggest listening exercise of its kind, Save the Children spoke to more than 54,500 children from 41 countries to learn more about their experiences of climate change and economic inequality, their hopes for the future, and what they think needs to be done to solve these crises.
Collaborating with others
Collaborating with others to accelerate our ambitions. We believe change is a collaborative effort.
Award winning Brazilian photographer Luisa Dörr travelled to Guatemala to document the resilience of girls overcoming the impact of climate change with the help of Save the Children alongside the local community.
Reducing emissions
We are committed to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impact as an organisation.
How are we helping children through the Climate Crisis?
While world leaders sit and talk, we’re working with children to take down-to-earth action.
We’re constructing solar powered water systems. Sewing drought resistant seeds. Restoring natural ecosystems by training families on how to become beekeepers. Planting carbon-absorbing trees to act as floor defences. Training teachers on how to provide eco-lessons. Giving out plastic-collection devices to help get the rivers clean.
Together, we’re reviving the natural world children and their communities depend on.
The greatest love story ever told
For most of us, climate change seems remote and theoretical.
It’s a story happening in the news or in the future. It’s a story about the end of the world. It’s a story of a problem so big nothing we could do on our own could ever make a difference.
But that’s not the story for children.
Nature is their world and they experience it up close.
Putting their love of nature into action
Solomon Islands
Save the Children is working with local experts to help families set up beekeeping businesses.
The bees pollinate mangrove trees, which grow to form a barrier against increasing storms and high tides.
The mangroves are also carbon sponges, helping in the global fight against climate change.
The bees produce sweet honey for farmers like Alison to sell.
It’s a virtuous circle of lasting change.
Indonesia
Save the Children has helped build a a solar-powered water system in Attika’s community, providing clean drinking water and irrigation for the crops they rely on for food.
And we’re teaching farmers sustainable agricultural techniques.
So they can grow food even in an increasingly extreme climate.
UK
Save the Children’s Change Makers – our growing group of young climate campaigners – are fighting for a fairer, greener future.
So children in the UK can enjoy the things we used to do as kids, like wade in rock pools and search for crabs in sea water without fear of falling sick.
Will you join us?
Together, we can create change that lasts for generations to come.
Born into the climate crisis
Three girls, born in different areas of the world, with (at least) one thing in common.
They won't let it stop them.
Activities and support on climate change for parents and carers
Talking to kids about the climate crisis
It's a big topic. Once we've understood it, we can take action for nature together.
Things to do with kids this summer
Children are putting their love of nature into action. On its own, each action might be small, but like a pebble landing in a pond, it sends ripples out across communities and whole societies.
Our latest climate reports
Opinion and thought starters on climate change
Some of our popular blogs and thought starters from staff and volunteers at Save the Children.
This is the new story of climate change
While world leaders sit around and talk, we’re working with children to take down-to-earth action.
Together, we’re reviving the natural world children and their communities depend on – the gardens that bring purpose and beauty to refugee children, the trees that protect villages from flooding, the lakes that provide a way of life for fishing families.
This is the new story of climate change. It is a love story – the most important love story ever told. A story that’s happening everywhere, all at once...
Three things the UK can do to tackle poverty and climate change
All too often, it is children living in the poorest countries who are already experiencing the harsh realities of poverty and who have contributed the least to global greenhouse emissions, that are suffering the most.
But there are solutions. Read about the possibilities.
A letter to my sons (one year later)
Save the Children UK's CEO Gwen Hines shares a letter she wrote to her sons in the face of the hottest UK temperatures on record. She encourages them not to lose hope - and to never stop believing in the possibility of change.
Children's say on climate change
Two summers ago, as temperatures topped 40C in parts of the UK for the first time ever - Megan Lawrence, Kickstart Project Assistant for Save the Children in Wales, reflects on how important it is to listen to the voices of future generations and their concerns on climate change.
Her reflections are just as important - and pressing - today.
Is it morally right to have children in the face of the climate crisis?
This isn't the first time in history that a generation has had to ask whether it is wise or morally acceptable to have children.
The link between the climate crisis and children's lives has never been clearer to see, or more difficult to witness.
Read the blog to find out why one writer at Save made the choice she did.
We need to work together because we don’t live in the same country, but in the same world.
- Message shared by a boy participating in a Save the Children dialogue in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Your questions answered
How does climate change specifically affect children?
Children are more vulnerable to extreme heat, flooding, and disease than adults. Their bodies can't regulate temperature as well, they need more water relative to their size, and malnutrition in early childhood causes permanent damage. Climate disasters also disrupt education, increase child labour and early marriage, and cause lasting trauma.
Which children are most affected by the climate crisis?
Children in low-income countries in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific are hit hardest—they've contributed least to global emissions but face the worst impacts. Within those countries, the poorest children, those with disabilities, and displaced children are most at risk.
What is Save the Children doing about climate change?
We're responding to climate emergencies with food, water, shelter, and medical care. We're also building long-term resilience through climate-smart schools, sustainable farming training, water systems, and early warning systems. And we're advocating for policy changes that put children's rights at the heart of climate action.
How can I help children affected by climate disasters?
Donate to Save the Children. Your gift helps us respond quickly when disasters strike and supports communities to prepare for future shocks. You can also campaign with us for climate justice and share our work to raise awareness.
Does Save the Children work on preventing climate change?
Our focus is helping children survive and adapt to climate impacts happening now, while advocating for government policies that reduce emissions and fund climate adaptation in vulnerable countries. We also reduce our own environmental footprint—you can read about this in our Annual Report 2024.
