Objectives

The webinar, organized jointly by UNICEF Regional Office for West and Central Africa and RCC WAC Africa aimed to:

• Guide UNFCCC Parties on why and how to formulate child-responsive climate policies and strategies, including their National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and the new round of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC 3.0); and

• Exchange and learn from other Parties' experiences.

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Background

Children, who make up one-third of the global population and more than half of the population in many West and Central African countries, are often overlooked in responses to climate change and in the guidance from the intergovernmental UNFCCC process. Less than half of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are child- or youth-sensitive, and only 2.4% of key global climate funds support programs specifically targeting children. As the next round of NDCs (NDC 3.0) is due in 2025, there is a critical need to focus on the inclusion of children in climate policies, especially considering the Global Stocktake (GST) outcomes highlighted at COP28. These outcomes underscored that while there has been progress in mitigation, adaptation, and support, the Parties are not yet collectively on track to meet the Paris Agreement goals.

The Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA) recognizes the significant role of indigenous peoples, local communities, cities, civil society, including youth and children, in addressing climate change. It encourages Parties to include children and youth in their climate policy processes, as detailed in Decision 1/CMA.4. In response to the GST outcomes, the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) was requested to hold an expert dialogue on children and climate change at its 60th session.
This dialogue, held on June 4th, 2024, engaged over 60 Parties and demonstrated the cross-Party commitment to the protection of children.

In addition, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) explicitly affirmed children's right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment in General Comment No. 26, which specifies the states' responsibility to protect children's rights from both immediate and future harm due to climate change. The UNCRC calls for an urgent increase in child-sensitive, gender-responsive, and disability-inclusive adaptation measures. It also stresses that mitigation objectives and measures should clearly respect and fulfill children's rights, urging states to transparently focus on children's rights when preparing NDCs. The latest science from IPCC indicates that greenhouse gas emissions need to be reduced by 60% by 2035, compared to 2019 levels, necessitating equal urgency in adaptation and mitigation efforts. To make NDC 3.0 and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) more inclusive and rights-based for children, capacity-building support is essential for countries to develop child-sensitive NDCs and NAPs that ensure climate and disaster resilience for critical social services.