Overview
- UNICEF published the Children's Climate Risk Report on June 16, 2026, finding about 2.3 billion children are exposed to at least one climate hazard and roughly 1.1 billion face three or more overlapping hazards.
- The report gives hazard-specific counts that include about 1.8 billion children exposed to drought, 1.2 billion to extreme heat, 662 million to tropical storms, 337 million to river floods and 33 million to coastal floods.
- The most common trio of threats is drought, extreme heat above 35°C and heatwaves, which together affect about 296 million children including large numbers in Nigeria, Pakistan and India.
- Exposure is concentrated in hotspots such as the Sahel and parts of South Asia with fragile services, with countries like Chad showing more than 95 percent of children facing three or more hazards and 39 island states also highly vulnerable.
- UNICEF links these overlapping risks to disruptions in health and education — noting 242 million children had schooling disrupted in 2024 — and urges urgent investment in resilient infrastructure, adaptation and disaster management to reduce harm and protect services.