Elevating Children in the Climate Change Agenda: Lessons Learned from COP28 and the Way Forward

By ECDAN

Join us for an upcoming webinar to discuss strategies to put children at the center of climate action. Climate change represents a fundamental threat to children’s rights and compromises their opportunity to grow up safe, healthy, well-nourished, happy, and learning. These threats are becoming increasingly tangible and severe, with more and more children being affected by displacement, disruptions to their education, and lack of access to life-saving health services due to climate change. While all children will bear the brunt of these negative impacts, young children are particularly vulnerable.  

This webinar will serve as a global briefing of the lessons learned from COP28 and the roadmap towards making COP30 the “Children’s COP”. More immediately, the webinar will also provide an overview of the upcoming “expert dialogue on children and climate change to discuss the disproportionate impacts of climate change on children and relevant policy solutions” in Bonn, Germany on June 4, 2024, as part of the SB60.

The dialogue is an important platform to educate UNFCCC parties, policymakers, climate scientists, and other key stakeholders about the value of early childhood development (ECD) policies and programs to boost the Adaptation and Loss & Damage agendas through evidence-based, high quality, equitable interventions delivered during the most consequential stage in life. To inform the agenda and discussion, ECDAN partners have submitted this statement to the SBI chair.

The webinar will have four panel discussions addressing the following issues:
1. Climate Negotiations: Partners will share lessons learned from the COP28 negotiations and relevant results for early childhood development
2. Climate Finance: Partners will discuss how to ensure climate financing mechanisms are child sensitive
3. Education: Partners will discuss the education-focused engagements at COP28 and ongoing and planned actions to build on the progress
4. Bonn Expert Dialogue: A briefing from UNICEF, co-moderator of the Expert Dialogue on Children and Climate Change, on the already known modalities of the Dialogue, the shared policy asks, and hoped-for outcomes.