Over 43mn kids displaced by floods, storms, droughts, wildfires between 2016-2021

Geneva, Oct 7 (IANS) The Unicef has revealed that more than 43 million children have been displaced from their homes by floods, storms, droughts and wildfires over the six years between 2016 and 2021.

According to the new Unicef report, titled Children Displaced in a Changing Climate, the figure works out to 20,000 children displaced every single day due to extreme weather fueled by climate change.

According to the analysis, China and the Philippines are among the countries that recorded the highest absolute numbers of child displacements, due to their exposure to extreme weather, large child populations and progress made on early warning and evacuation capacities.

However, relative to the size of the child population, children living in small island states, such as Dominica and Vanuatu, were most affected by storms, while children in Somalia and South Sudan were most affected by floods.

Floods and storms accounted for 40.9 million, or 95 per cent, of recorded child displacements between 2016 and 2021.

Meanwhile, droughts triggered more than 1.3 million internal displacements of children - with Somalia again among the most affected, while wildfires triggered 810,000 child displacements, with more than a third occurring in 2020 alone.

Canada, Israel and the US recorded the most.

The report also said that riverine floods have the potential to displace almost 96 million children over the next 30 years, based on current climate data, while cyclonic winds and storm surges have the potential to displace 10.3 million and 7.2 million children respectively, over the same period.

“It is terrifying for any child when a ferocious wildfire, storm or flood barrels into their community,” said Unicef Executive Director Catherine Russell.

“For those who are forced to flee, the fear and impact can be especially devastating, with worry of whether they will return home, resume school, or be forced to move again."