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Climate Change Adaptation (CCA)
There is no scientific ambiguity to the fact that the world’s climate is warming and that this warming over the past 50 years is attributable in part to man’s activities. There is a wide consensus that this warming will lead to changing rainfall patterns, rising sea levels, increased spread of tropical disease, loss of biodiversity and increased frequency and amplitude of weather related natural disasters. Children are particularly at risk in a disaster and vulnerable to the incremental impacts of climate change. It is essential that their immediate and longer-term survival, protection and developmental needs are considered in any activities to prepare for or mitigate a potential disaster, or adapt to the negative impacts of longer-term climatic trends. Communities and local authorities need to listen to children to find out what risks they might face and how they might respond to them.
CCA programs are activities which aim to make adjustments in natural and human systems in response to actual or expected climate change and their effects. For Save the Children, adaptation is principally about practical measures in programming, policy and advocacy which reduce vulnerabilities or increase resilience of children and their communities from the negative effects of climate change. Disaster Risk Reduction and CCA are not mutually exclusive but in fact interdependent; a CCA project may be just as vulnerable to natural hazards as any other project and therefore needs a DRR component to protect the CCA investment. To address the risks and uncertainty predicted by climate change, both DRR and CCA analysis and programming must attempt to take account of the unpredictability of what may happen in the future as the planet continues to get warmer.
Photo: Save the Children
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Feeling the Heat: Child survival in a changing climate
Climate change is the biggest global health threat to children in the 21st century and represents an immediate global emergency. Tackling the issues children face as a result of climate change must be made a priority. Save the Children's report, Feeling t
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"Clouds but little rain..."-- A local perspective of progress towards implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action
This study assesses the progress undertaken in implementing the Hyogo Framework for Action at local level, and identifies a significant gap between national and local level action. It serves to connect policy formulation at international and national leve
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In the face of disaster. Children and climate change
"In the Face of Disaster" explores the potential impact of climate change and natural disasters on children — in particular on their health, nutrition, protection and education. It looks at disaster risk reduction, and the importance of involving children
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Legacy of disasters:The impact of climate change on children
The evidence is clear: global warming is a fact, and it will have a dramatic impact on humankind. The likely effects of this warming – increasingly frequent and severe natural disasters, temperature extremes, a global rise in the sea levels – will be unev
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What will it take to achieve the Millennium Development Goals?
Due to the combination of high food prices, climate change and the impact of the international financial and economic crises, disparities in Millennium Development Goal (MDG) achievement can be seen within and between countries. This report identifies a c
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Right to a future: Climate change negotiations must be accountable to children
Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century – and overwhelmingly children will be most affected. It poses severe threats to child survival and wellbeing, food security and nutrition, as well as children’s access to education and p
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Derecho a un futuro: Las negociaciones sobre el cambio climático deben tener en cuenta a los niños
Climate change is one of the major challenges of the twenty-first century- and children from developing countries will be the most overwhelmingly affected. Climate change poses severe threats to child survival and wellbeing, food security and nutrition, a
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Towards a characterisation of adaptive capacity: a framework for analysing adaptive capacity at the local level. Background Note
This background note puts forward a 'Local Adaptive Capacity framework' (LAC) developed as part of the Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance (ACCRA) programme, drawing on extensive consultations with academics, policy-makers and practitioners. It is a
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Climate change, children and youth in Cambodia: Successes, challenges and policy implications
The brief presents an overview of climate impacts in the context of existing poverty and vulnerability, before specifically focusing on child impacts. The brief draws on Children in a Changing Climate (CCC) research with children, presenting views of the
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Leaving home: Voices of children on the move
Children have become an important part of large-scale population movements both within and between countries and are likely to be increasingly affected in the next decades as a result of globalisation, socio-economic shifts and climate change. Yet, in deb
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Development, Rights and Justice for the World's Poorest Children
Save the Children highlights some important areas where new thinking and new approaches are necessary on the part of the Department for International Development (DFID) and the UK government. In each of these areas, some specific policy recommendations ar
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Newborn and child survival. Policy Brief
An estimated 8.8 million children die before the age of five each year – that’s almost one child every three seconds.Nearly all – 97% – of these children die in low- or middle-income countries, and disproportionately from the poorest and most marginalised