Extreme weather events have plunged more than 27 million children into acute food insecurity in 2022, in 12 countries among the most vulnerable to climate change, the NGO Save the Children announced on Tuesday.
This figure is an increase of 135% compared to 2021, according to a data analysis published by the British charity ahead of the UN Climate Conference (COP 28), which opens Thursday in Dubai.
Children represent nearly half of the 57 million people in food crisis in these 12 countries in 2022 due to droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events, according to data from the Integrated Food Security Classification Framework (IPC). in English), an initiative supported in particular by the UN and various NGOs and international institutions to describe the seriousness of food emergency situations.
Of the 12 countries, Ethiopia and Somalia were home to almost half of the 27 million children facing these levels of food insecurity, Save the Children said.
“As climate-related weather events become more frequent and extreme, we will see their increasingly brutal consequences on the lives of children,” warned Save the Children Executive Director Inger Ashing.
The charity calls on COP28 to take action against climate change, in particular recognizing children as “key actors of change”, but also to act against other causes of food insecurity, such as conflict prevention or strengthening health systems.
In Somalia, notes the NGO, recent torrential rains accompanied by significant flooding have driven 650,000 people from their homes, around half of them children.
In Pakistan, more than two million children are still undernourished after floods which hit a third of the territory in 2022.
Globally, Save the Children estimates that one in three children in the world (774 million) live in poverty while being exposed to extreme weather events.
In a report published last week, Save the Children indicated that in 2023, 17.6 million children have been or will face hunger from the moment they are born.