Save the Children's response to the IPCC mitigation report

4 APRIL 2022 - Commenting on the IPCC Working Group III’s Mitigation report out today, Yolande Wright, Global Director of Poverty and Climate Change at Save the Children, said:

“Today’s alarming IPCC report shows the window for action to limit warming to 1.5 degrees – which is what we need to limit deadly climate impacts – is rapidly closing.  Meanwhile, children the world over are making their voices heard, and leaders must listen.

“The climate crisis is a child rights crisis, particularly impacting those bearing the brunt of inequality and discrimination: the richest 50% of states are responsible for 86% of emissions, while the poorest are responsible for just 14%[i].

“We know that there is still time to make a difference. Modelling released last year by Save the Children and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel found that under the original Paris Agreement pledges, a child born in 2020 will experience on average twice as many wildfires, 3 times as many crop failures, 2.6 times as many droughts, 3 times as many river floods, and 7 times more heatwaves across their lifetimes, compared to a person born in 1960.

“This same modelling, however, finds that limiting warming to 1.5°Cwill reduce the additional lifetime exposure of newborns to heatwaves by 45%, droughts by 39%, river floods by 38%, crop failures by 28%, and wildfire by 10%. This critical difference will allow more children to have a healthy future in which they have access to basic needs, and one in which their rights can be fulfilled.

“Leaders of the richest countries and historical emitters must take responsibility. Without immediate drastic action to curb global emissions, children are burdened with the most dangerous impacts of the climate crisis.”

 ENDS