One in 10 Kiwi kids face 'dual burden' of poverty, climate impacts - report

Two thirds of Kiwi kids are estimated to be affected by at least one extreme climate each year, with one in 10 also facing the dual burden of poverty. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Two thirds of Kiwi children are estimated to be affected by at least one extreme climate each year, with one in 10 also facing the dual burden of poverty, according to a just-released global report.

An analysis released today by international charity Save The Children found an estimated 774 million children – or one third of the world's child population – were living with the double-impacts of poverty and high climate risk.

That included 110,000 children in New Zealand, or 10 per cent of our child population, according to the report, which drew on climate modelling from researchers at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

It followed a report from the same charity last year, that found children born in 2020 would face 5.6 times as many heatwaves, 4.3 times as many droughts, 1.5 times more wildfires and 1.4 times as many river floods as their grandparents, under the current trajectory of global emissions.

But if nations could somehow limit warming to 1.5C - a threshold the UN's latest stocktake found could be crossed as soon as 2030 to 2035 - the lifetime exposure of newborns to heatwaves, globally, could be reduced by 45 per cent, droughts by 39 per cent, river floods by 38 per cent, crop failures by 28 per cent, and wildfires by 10 per cent.

"We know that many Kiwi families are already struggling to pay for essentials for their children like healthy food, a warm home or access to healthcare, particularly as the cost of living continues to rise," Save the Children New Zealand advocacy and research director Jacqui Southey said.

"It is these families that will struggle most in the face of extreme climate events and it is essential we help support them through with pre-planned financial support, access to services and necessities such as shelter and food if climate events hit."

Southey said this burden would only worsen unless the world acted to reduce emissions.

"During our recent Youth Forum for COP27 with Climate Change Minister James Shaw, rangatahi panellists shared the commitments they are making to reduce their impact on the climate," she said.

"While this is something we can all do, it will be most effective with Government support.

"For example, access to affordable public transport is required to reduce the high numbers of cars we have on the road."

In other parts of the Pacific, such as Papua New Guinea, the dual impacts were particularly high with 59 per cent of the total child population – close to 2.2 million – living with the double burden.

Australia's child population fares better for poverty rates, but the majority of children lived in the face of high climate risk.

The analysis revealed that India has the highest total number of children both living in poverty and bearing the brunt of the climate crisis — up to 223 million children in total. It is followed by Nigeria and Ethiopia, with 58 million and 36 million children, respectively, living with this double burden.

A significant number of children – 121 million – experiencing the double threat of high climate risk and poverty live in higher income countries, with 28 million of them in the world's most affluent countries.

More than two out of five of these children (12.3 million) lived in the US or the UK.

Despite the grim statistics in the report, Forest and Bird youth representative Nate Wilborne worried these weren't moving society forward on the issue.

"While it is good to have these numbers as references, and to be able to reflect on them; for these reports to only be used as acknowledgment is not enough," he said.

"Instead, we need to be using these resources to create solutions, because we have all the science and facts that we need."