Raising our Voices as Mothers: Our Climate, Our Children’s Future

Idea in Brief

  • Focusing on early childhood is a climate-friendly investment. It can address poverty and inequity and foster climate resilience and adaptation.

  • Countries like Mongolia are demonstrating the power of collective action to fight air pollution and help young children.

  • It is not too late - 2023 is the year to amplify our actions and ensure a child-centered approach to climate change. Policy makers must prioritize young children as a driver of climate resilience and adaptation.

Authors Peck Gee and Ulziisaikhan are mothers to young children who have experienced toxic air pollution firsthand.

© UNICEF/UNI104346/Holmes

Seventeen million babies globally under the age of one breathe toxic air. Nearly 90% of the burden of disease attributable to climate change is borne by children under the age of five. These are not just alarming headlines to worry about in the distant future. Climate change and environmental degradation are crises right now. They are already affecting young children, pregnant mothers, and unborn babies. These compounding issues have deep implications on fetuses, babies, toddlers, and preschoolers because brains develop fastest in the first five years of life.

In Nepal, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to mask our children on the walk to kindergarten to protect against air pollution up to three times the recommended tolerance level. This winter in Mongolia, as coal burning increased to combat temperatures as low as -30C (-22F), the resulting polluted air has particularly affected children, worsening flu and cold symptoms due to weakened immune systems. Frustrated, we have agonized over whether to relocate to a new country to avoid worrying that the constant smog is destroying the development of our children.

As both early childhood professionals and mothers, we fear that young children, who have contributed the least to global emissions, are facing the greatest impacts of climate change. We worry that current inequities facing young children will become even more severe as environmental hazards, extreme weather events, and disasters increase and become more intense. We see a strong need for including children’s rights in the climate space.

Building resilience starting early in life is key

At COP27, like previous UN climate change conferences, young children (below primary school age) were largely missing from the discourse. Fortunately, efforts are increasing elsewhere to support young children and families in building resilience to climate and environmental shocks. There is growing awareness that early childhood development and climate resilience are intertwined. In other words, investing in young children will not only alleviate poverty and inequity, but will also foster climate resilience and adaptation. Partnerships are critical. For instance, From Most Vulnerable to Most Valuable, a global scoping study, calls for mainstreaming early childhood development in climate policies, programming, and financing. Early childhood development is a climate-friendly investment; for every US dollar in a child’s first 1,000 days of life, there is a future return of 17 dollars if we target the most vulnerable young children.

A strong and growing body of evidence underlines the particular urgency of combating air pollution. For instance, air pollution is estimated to cause $8.1 trillion in health damage annually (equivalent to 6.1% of global GDP). It has been linked to almost a million stillbirths a year. The youngest children are most vulnerable because toxic air can harm their brain during a period when neural connections and immune systems are rapidly developing. Young children also face greater exposures: infants breathe three times faster than adults and children are closer to the ground and more exposed to air pollutants.

Gurvanbulag, Bulgan, Mongolia

Mongolia leads the way: Forward-looking strategies on air pollution and children

Mongolia has demonstrated the power of collective action to fight air pollution and help children. It has scaled up innovative strategies by working with different partners and across government departments. With support from UNICEF Mongolia, the Mongolian University of Science and Technology has partnered with Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri (U.S.), to monitor air quality and assess children’s exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in kindergartens, maternity wards, and pediatric hospitals. In partnership with parliamentarians and the Ministry of Construction and Urban Development, additional kindergartens and health facilities will benefit from retrofitting for better insulation, ventilation, air filtration, and electric heating systems through new national building codes and standards.

Additionally, CHIPS (Cooking, Heating, and Insulation Products and Services), a project now approved for green loans by the government, replaces traditional coal-fired stoves with energy-efficient electric cooking and heating technology. This program has also benefited families living in gers, traditional Mongolian dwellings–where young children spend most of their time–with improved insulation and ventilation.

In 2023, it’s time to amplify our actions

It’s not too late. So much more could be done to enable a child-centered approach to climate change that better supports and protects young children at all levels of society - and particularly at a multilateral level.

We call upon the COP president, heads of state, and lead negotiators to prioritize young children as a key driver to climate resilience and adaptation. It is crucial to reflect young children across key climate and environment policies, financing, and programming, including the following:

  • Incorporate child-sensitive commitments in national and subnational climate and environment policies including nationally determined contributions (NDCs), national adaptation plans (NAPs), policies related to climate finance and disaster risk reduction (DRR).

  • Recognize young children in climate financing mechanisms and international financing bodies–including the Green Climate Fund, Adaptation Fund, Loss and Damage Fund, Global Environment Facility, and the World Bank.

  • Put young children first in climate programming and actions by recognizing the cost of inaction and how a focus on their wellbeing can be a powerful equalizer to climate change inequities, addressing them effectively early rather than later in life.

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now. There is no better time than today to take urgent actions for a livable planet suitable for every child, especially the youngest and most disadvantaged. Let’s collectively transform our young children from the most vulnerable to the most valuable stewards for a sustainable future.

Key Resources

Authors

Peck Gee Chua is a regional early childhood development consultant at the UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office (EAPRO). She has previous experience with the UNICEF Regional Office of South Asia (ROSA) and New York headquarters. Prior to this, she was with the DC-based environment NGO Rare and UNESCO on Education for Sustainable Development. She is a global leader for young children in Asia-Pacific (2019-2020 cohort) with the World Forum Foundation, leading an ECD air pollution advocacy project. Peck Gee holds an MA degree in comparative and international development education from the University of Minnesota.

Ulziisaikhan Sereeter has been an early childhood development officer at UNICEF Mongolia since 2017. Prior to joining UNICEF, she worked with the Independent Research Institute of Mongolia (IRIM) and Save the Children Japan in the fields of disability, child development, early childhood education, and primary education. She is a doctoral candidate at the Mongolian State University of Education and holds an MA degree in international relations from International University of Japan in Niigata.

Caroline Cassidy