Climate change refers to any significant change in the state of the climate that persists for an extended period, typically decades.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the leading scientific forum for climate analysis, tells us that planet earth is currently warming in a historically unprecedented manner. While there are multiple complex drivers, it is primarily human activities, particularly agriculture, the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas), and the destruction of forests. These activities produce greenhouse gases, which collect in the atmosphere and, like a blanket, warm the surface of the earth. They are now at their highest levels in history.

Communities around the world are already feeling the impacts of climate change. Rising greenhouse gas levels are driving more frequent and intense storms, changes in rainfall patterns, increasing air and ocean temperatures, melting ice sheets and glaciers, and rising sea levels. These changes then go on to affect soil fertility, water availability, and ultimately the well-being of people and our environments.

The social and economic impacts of climate change are making it more difficult for children in poverty to experience their basic human rights, including those related to food, health, water and housing.

People experiencing poverty are on the frontlines of climate change, being among the first and worst impacted by environmental degradation. Temperature and weather extremes are hitting hardest in places where food and water are already limited, like in sub-Saharan Africa and low-lying countries in the Pacific. What’s more, people living in poverty often have limited resources for adapting to climate-related hazards, such as insurance, a warm, dry home, and a full pantry. This means that communities are less able to bounce back when disaster strikes.

For children in poverty, climate change makes life even harder and more dangerous. Children are less able to protect themselves from extreme weather events and are more susceptible to disease, famine and drought. Families may need to migrate elsewhere, take their children out of school, and/or get them to help at home. In some cases, families must resort to child marriage or child labour just to survive. Children often do not get to have a say in such decisions, which can lead to situations that make them more vulnerable to climate change.
 

Climate change is already impacting the lives and livelihoods of our Pacific neighbours. Coastal infrastructure and land is being damaged, there are more intense cyclones and droughts, crops and coastal fisheries that families rely on are being impacted, alongside coral reefs and mangroves that support the ecosystems on which families rely for food and shelter.

Our Pacific partners have shared stories with us about failing crops as the soil becomes too salty, islands where they grew up slowly eroding away, and sudden and severe cyclones uprooting their families’ graves. People don’t want to move to other countries and see climate migration as a last resort. However, some communities must already relocate their homes further inland to protect their lives and livelihoods.

Future generations of Pacific children are particularly at risk of harm from these environmental changes. Pacific children are at greatest risk of the impacts of climate change on food supply. Malnutrition, diarrhoeal disease and malaria will likely increase because of climate change.

On top of this, relocating or migrating elsewhere disrupts children’s connections to their identities. Being connected to their ancestral lands is important for children’s cultural and spiritual well-being. However, some low-lying countries and islands are at risk of disappearing completely due to rising sea levels. If they do have to leave, community elders are worried that their grandchildren will lose touch with their identity, language and cultural heritage, which are treasures to protect.
 

There is no one size fits all approach to climate action. We work with children and their communities to develop locally led solutions that will last.

• An example is Chauk community, which lies in the ‘dry zone’ of Myanmar and is prone to fires and flooding. Disaster Preparedness Plans have been established in 19 communities to improve their preparedness and resilience, including through an early warning system and the establishment of freshwater tanks. 
• World Vision is working with farmers in Timor-Leste to restore previously unusable land, to increase resilience to climate-induced shocks. Communities used to employ a ‘slash and burn’ practice to maintain soil fertility, meaning they would indiscriminately burn wood from the forest. As a consequence, soil quality has been degraded and forest cover reduced. With the support of World Vision’s Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) programme, farmer groups are now learning how to regenerate trees and shrubs from the ‘underground forest’ of living tree stumps and roots, breathing life back into original land cover.
• In Ethiopia, a trial run by World Vision saw 2,500 fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly stoves distributed to a community. Local women were chosen to participate in the project and trained in how to make the stoves and run their own businesses. The evaluation showed the stoves reduced the amount of carbon monoxide released during cooking by up to 53%, and that the amount of firewood needed was reduced by up to 49%. Community members said they also noticed a dramatic reduction in the time spent collecting firewood and their children missed less school.
• In Senetwo, Kenya, World Vision is implementing its FMNR programme alongside local farmers. Senetwo is prone to drought due to the impacts of climate change, the impacts of which are worse for people living with disabilities. Through FMNR, World Vision is training smallholder farmers and pastorialists with disabilities to regenerate living root systems on their lands to regrow them into mature trees, boosting soil fertility and soil moisture. Disabled farmers say that FMNR offers a sustainable solution to drought that allows them to better provide for their families during the dry season without needing to rely upon others.

The environmental effects of climate change have major consequences for people all around the world. People living in poverty are most vulnerable, especially those who live in low-lying coastal areas such as islands in the Pacific. Climate change makes life harder and more dangerous for them, and adds to existing problems like food insecurity and water scarcity. 

We’ve already seen that droughts, cyclones and floods are more frequent, destroying homes and livelihoods. Seasons are less predictable and crops are failing, pushing millions into hunger. Sea levels are rising, forcing women, men and children to leave their homes and land. 

The social and economic impacts of climate change are making it more difficult for people to enjoy their basic human rights, including those related to food, health, water, housing and adequate standard of living.

World Vision is working to tackle climate change through the work we do with communities as well as by advocating to Government to accelerate their efforts.

We are committed to helping communities prepare themselves for climate change. Our work is focused on building communities’ resilience to the effects of climate change, for example through disaster preparedness planning and improving food and water security measures. We are also working to increase environment-enhancing development activities such as reforestation, agro-forestry, and conservation farming in World Vision’s programmes.

World Vision further advocates with governments to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions and fulfil their climate-related commitments under the Paris Agreement as well as the Sustainable Development Goals.

Climate change is happening, and it is affecting the poorest communities that World Vision works with, especially those in New Zealand’s Pacific backyard. We know the most vulnerable, especially children, are the most susceptible to the devastating effects of climate change and changes to their environment are already affecting their lives.

In the Pacific Islands coastal infrastructure and land is being lost, there are more intense cyclones and droughts, crops and coastal fisheries that families rely on are being impacted, alongside coral reefs and mangroves that support the ecosystems on which families rely.

Climate change threatens the future generations of Pacific children. Because they are still growing, children are at greatest risk of the impacts of climate change on food supply. The greatest killers of children – malnutrition, diarrhoeal disease and malaria – will increase because of climate change.

A healthy environment is the basis for the future of children.

Climate change is a social problem, not just an environmental one. Many of the countries the most exposed to extreme weather events and a changing climate are also those facing the most significant barriers to adapting to its impacts - and these are countries where World Vision works.

  In these regions, climate change is threatening food security, agriculture, water supplies, economic stability and health, especially among children. For example, extreme weather events can spread diseases including diarrhoea, leptospirosis, cholera, and typhoid through exposure to contaminated water or decreased hygiene due to water shortages. These diseases have the potential to kill children.

On top of this, climate change is causing large scale displacement of people within countries and sometimes across country borders. This climate-related migration poses major health risks to those on the move. Without proper planning, migration can place people in dangerous and precarious living situations. Migrating also threatens communities’ connections with their lands, livelihoods, and cultural heritage.

These overlapping issues can be addressed directly through World Vision’s work. World Vision is working alongside communities, including in the Pacific, to strengthen their resilience to climate impacts so that they can remain in their homelands. The organisation is also partnering with women, children, and people with disabilities to strengthen their participation in decision-making and boost their disaster preparedness. At the same time, World Vision is taking actions that reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions to avoid climate change’s most severe effects.