SDG13 Climate Action

The children and youth consultation, on the climate crisis and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), was conducted from August 2019 to January 2020, across 12 countries, in Asia and the Pacific. The consultation was jointly organised by a group of partners that included the Asia Pacific Coalition for Safe Schools, UNICEF, and UN Major Group Children and Youth and UN Disaster Risk Reduction, World Vision International, Plan International, and Save the Children.

World Vision is holding a webinar to share the findings from their report "Guardians of the Planet - Asia Pacific Children and Youth Consultation on Climate Crisis & Disaster Risk Reduction 2020".

Air pollution is one of the biggest environmental threats to the right to health today, being responsible for 7 million premature deaths each year. Air pollutants also contribute directly to the climate crisis, endangering health and livelihoods of generations current and future.

How do we bridge the energy access gap in Asia? How can women's entrepreneurship be a solution? Join the EmPower project for a discussion on investing in climate-resilient livelihoods in building back better from COVID-19.

In Turkey’s Western Anatolia, unprecedented funds are committed to the development of geothermal resources and energy infrastructure. Deep geothermal energy projects, in particular, grew in size and number in the last 15 years. These are almost always located in the proximity of largely agrarian communities in peri-urban and rural settings with a longstanding tradition of agriculture such as fig, grape and/or olive production.

Longer dry seasons & lower than average/erratic rainfall are feeding drought conditions in Cambodia. The impacts are serious for subsistence farmers, whose livlelihoods and food security depend on consistent rainfall. 

In 2004, 480,000+ ha. crops were destroyed due to drought; in 2018, drought affected 52,000+ people and 96,929 ha. Such events can be exacerbated by the El Nino Soutehrn Oscillation. 

From 2015-2018, the City of Cape Town in South Africa underwent a severe drought resulting in a water crisis. The city set strict water restrictions to avoid what was called “day zero”: the day that six of Cape Town’s rain-fed dams supplying water to the city would become critically low, leading to the shutting of taps and establishment of water collection points across the city.

Severe food insecurity and hunger have increased in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and this has been partly attributed to climate change and soil degradation. It is estimated that more than two-thirds of agricultural land in SSA is severely degraded and that production of major food crops including maize will decline by more than 30% by 2050 due to rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns.

The Maya population in Belize, like millions of Central Americans, decides when to cut, burn, and plant their crops based on experience as to when seasonal rains will begin, and misjudgements can be catastrophic (Rodríguez et al., 2015). Maize, the staple crop of Maya farmers, is already grown near its temperature and moisture threshold, making it highly vulnerable to warm and drought episodes (Richardson, 2009). Climate change means more frequent drought, floods, and destructive storms and less predictable precipitation seasonality.

This upcoming session of the #Youth4ClimateLive Series - Driving Youth Action will facilitate an intergenerational and interactive virtual conversation between policy makers and unstoppable youth at the forefront of creative climate action. This is the third in a series of monthly events hosted by the Italian Ministry of the Environment in collaboration with Connect4Climate – World Bank Group and the office of the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth.