Submission by The Climate Cares Centre and United for Global Mental Health to the Expert Dialogue on Children and Climate Change

Topics: Health
Type: Evidence & submission papers
Publication date: May 2024

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Summary

Authors: Dr Omnia El Omrani and Dr Alessandro Massazza, et al.

In response to the UNFCCC Decision 1/CMA.5, para 182 to hold an “expert dialogue on children and climate change”, the Climate Cares Centre, Imperial College London and United for Global Mental Health welcome the opportunity to share our experience and examples of the disproportionate impacts of climate change on children, alongside relevant policy solutions.

According to the World Health Organization, no country is sufficiently protecting children’s health, their environment and their futures. The upcoming first expert dialogue on children and climate change should address the most relevant and pressing climate impacts on children’s health, including their mental health and well-being.

  • There is growing evidence concerning how climate change is negatively impacting children’s mental health and wellbeing.
  • Most children recover naturally and are resilient in the face of extreme weather events in the long term. However, for a minority, symptoms can persist.
  • Exposure to extreme weather events can also have significant impacts on mental health indirectly by worsening social determinants of child mental health such as schooling, livelihoods, and housing.
  • There is also growing evidence highlighting the impacts of extreme heat and hotter average temperatures on children’s mental health.
  • Climate change has been associated with negative physical health outcomes by increasing the spread of vector-borne diseases such as dengue and malaria.
  • There are substantial co-benefits for children’s mental health coming from climate action.
  • Implementing mitigation and adaptation strategies during childhood is likely to have much larger effects on the long-term psychological health of children than programs implemented later in life.
  • We urgently need more research on the impacts on children’s mental health of climate change in low- and middle-income countries.

Policy recommendations:

  • Mental health support for children in the context of climate adaptation.
  • Mental health integration into the Glasgow work programme on Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE).
  • Ensure meaningful participation of children in the Expert Dialogue.
  • Hold a follow-up expert dialogue on children and climate change.
  • Integrate children’s mental health and psychosocial wellbeing considerations into submissions for the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs).