Professor Alan Stein , the director of the Children and Climate Initiative at the Blavatnik School of Government , Oxford University, responds to the release of the Belém Health Action Plan at COP30 today, and explains why children need greater consideration in global climate policy discourse.
Professor Alan SteinWith its layers of bureaucracy and realpolitik, the annual COP summit - the UN international meeting focusing on climate - can feel frustratingly slow and ineffective.
Every now and again, though, a development renews faith in the system. For me, today's release of the Belém Health Action Plan - and specifically its crucial inclusion of children - is one such moment.
A health plan with real potential
The Belém Health Action Plan is the first global climate plan specifically aimed at addressing the human health impacts of climate change. As a professor working in global health, I am delighted by this overdue focus.
Any delay in tackling climate action will result in millions of avoidable deaths every year. Indeed, people are already dying from climate change: heat-related mortality has increased by 63% since 1990 , with over half a million people now dying from heat stress each year.
Why early life magnifies risk
I was concerned that early drafts of the plan, however, paid relatively little attention to children as a uniquely vulnerable group.
The Belém Health Action Plan is the first global climate plan specifically aimed at addressing the human health impacts of climate change. As a professor working in global health, I am delighted by this overdue focus.
I specialise in children and adolescents, and over my career, I have been one of many researchers to show just how crucial your very earliest development is to the rest of your life. Your time in the womb and your first two years - a critical 1000 days - establish your development as a human being in profound and long-lasting ways.
In this small window your cognitive development and physical development are shaped, influencing a range of outcomes as an adult , including your physical and mental health, ability to learn , and social and emotional wellbeing.
How climate harms children's development
Clearly, we want to ensure those 1000 days are as good as they can be not only for our own children, but children all over the world. And here, climate change matters greatly.
Exposure to extreme heat during pregnancy is linked to preterm births and lower birth weights, which can influence later health and learning. Droughts and crop failures affect children's food, with even short periods of poor nutrition in early life resulting in slowed growth and brain development.
Typhoons and other extreme weather-related disasters can easily lead to homelessness and displacement, depriving children of education and causing significant stress and trauma.
Exposure to extreme heat during pregnancy is linked to preterm births and lower birth weights, which can influence later health and learning. Droughts and crop failures affect children's food, with even short periods of poor nutrition in early life resulting in slowed growth and brain development. Typhoons and other extreme weather-related disasters can easily lead to homelessness and displacement, depriving children of education and causing significant stress and trauma.
Putting children into the Belém plan
My colleagues and I were able to collaborate with the Brazilian Health Ministry and advocated for children to be more directly considered in the Belém Health Action Plan through feedback on an early draft. This connection came about thanks to my colleague Omnia El Omrani, an alumna of Oxford's Blavatnik School of Government.
The final plan now states that climate change is "placing significant strain on health systems worldwide and disproportionately affecting developing countries and populations in situations of vulnerability" and calls for countries to develop evidence-based policies that "protect the health, nutrition, hydration, and psychosocial well-being of children and adolescents" in educational settings and across broader climate and health adaptation efforts.
Mind the funding and policy gap
This recognition is important for everyone but it is especially crucial for low- and middle-income countries, given they face significant health challenges and the worst effects of climate change.
Most low- and middle-income countries spend only around £30 annually per person on health services, compared with £2,200 per person for high-income countries. Aid from developed countries to support child health can supplement this, but such aid is not currently adapted to a changing climate.
Without child-adaptive climate policy and climate-adaptive child policy, we risk wasting international development funds and locking in disadvantage for generations to come.
Conversely, of the climate finance that is going to low- and middle-income countries, only 2.5% is marked for programs that have any consideration of the unique needs of children. Without child-adaptive climate policy and climate-adaptive child policy, we risk wasting international development funds and locking in disadvantage for generations to come.
Building the evidence base
The Belém Health Action Plan's recognition of the distinct needs of children is an important step in focussing international efforts. Much more information will also be needed.
While it is undeniable that children are the group most affected by climate change, we have yet to elucidate the precise mechanisms by which climate change induced extreme weather events affect different groups of children in specific ways and in particular locations.
This detailed information is critical to inform the granular evidence necessary to develop appropriate adaption and mitigation actions to protect children.
I am optimistic about what we can do collectively with more evidence and policy development, delivered through grassroots activity as well as international actions like COP and the Belém Health Action Plan. We can - we must - shield our children from the worst impacts of the climate change, and empower them to be a generation who grapple with it better than their forebears.
From research to action worldwide
I lead the Children and Climate Initiative , based out of Oxford University's Blavatnik School of Government , which exists to develop this granular evidence around the globe. As a group of climate, health, mental health, early child development, and law experts across Oxford University partnering with non-governmental organisations across Asia-Pacific , Africa , Arab/MiddleEast and Europe/Central Asia and research colleagues in Brazil as well as UNICEF and elsewhere, we are examining the relationship between climate change and adverse health and development outcomes in children.
We will predict where these impacts will be most acutely felt, work out who is most vulnerable, and support policymakers to develop adaptation and mitigation strategies.
Following our initial engagement with the Belém Health Action Plan, we have been invited to be the implementing partner for its components that reference children. Over the coming years we will collaborate with institutions around the world to develop our research into actionable health policy.
I am optimistic about what we can do collectively with more evidence and policy development, delivered through grassroots activity as well as international actions like COP and the Belém Health Action Plan. We can - we must - shield our children from the worst impacts of the climate change, and empower them to be a generation who grapple with it better than their forebears.
