COP29 Save the Children Policy Briefing

The 29th Conference of Parties (COP29) will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan from 11 to 22 November 2024. The COP will bring Parties together to act towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Save the Children will be attending to ensure that children’s rights, needs, voices and equity are reflected in the negotiations.

At its heart, the climate crisis is a child rights crisis. Climate change profoundly and disproportionately impacts children due to their unique physiological and developmental characteristics. According to data released by Save the Children, 774 million children globally face the double burden of high climate risk and poverty. In addition, our other data shows that, under Paris Agreement pledges a child born in 2020 will experience on average 6.8 times more heatwaves across their lifetimes, compared to a person born in 1960. Children’s voices, rights and distinct and heightened vulnerabilities to the climate crisis have largely been ignored in climate policies, funding and action, but are starting to gain much-needed attention.

This briefing contains key recommendations for COP29. In particular, the briefing underscores the need for an ambitious child-responsive New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance, dedicated to delivering child and gender-responsive outcomes at the scale required, along with a meaningful follow-up to the Expert Dialogue on Children and Climate Change that took place at Bonn in June 2024.   For the sake of the world’s 2.4 billion children and future generations, it is essential to maintain focus and momentum, the sharing of good practices and capacity building of Parties on the integration of children’s distinct needs, perspectives, and their human rights in climate policies, actions, and finance.