Palvetzian: Wildfires — children are particularly vulnerable

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As Jasper wildfire evacuees prepare to return to their town, we’ve learned that Jasper’s children may not be able to return to their classrooms in time for the start of the new school year. Air quality reports indicate that there will need to be a deeper clean before students can get back to their daily routine safely.

The devastating Jasper wildfire is a stark reminder that our communities are increasingly at risk of extreme weather events. So, too, is the health and wellbeing of our children. All too often, media coverage, global climate policy and discourse on climate hazards overlook the fact that children have unique vulnerabilities when confronted by extreme weather.

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Children are not little adults; their minds and bodies are different. A recent UNICEF report revealed that wildfire smoke is approximately 10 times more harmful to children’s respiratory health than is ambient air pollution. This is because wildfires release more particulate matter that is smaller in size than that found in ambient air. It puts young children — who breathe twice as rapidly as adults and are still growing and developing — at higher risk. Newborns and infants also have less nasal deposition of particles, meaning that a higher proportion of particles can penetrate deeply into their young lungs.

But, as we are now seeing in Jasper, the impact of wildfires or extreme weather events extends well beyond immediate physical health concerns. For children who are forced to flee, the fear can live on: fear of whether they will return home, resume school, see their friends, or be forced to move again.

Moving from immediate danger may have saved their life, but it also brutally disrupts it. The effects of climate hazards linger long after an extreme event has passed. For example, the rate of post-traumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents 18 months after the Fort McMurray wildfire was found to be between 27 and 37 per cent.

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The reality is the climate crisis is not just changing the planet; in too many cases, it is changing children. And it is changing them everywhere in the world. From the moment of conception until they grow into adulthood, the development of children’s brains, lungs, immune systems, mental health and other critical functions are deeply affected by the environments in which they grow up.

Globally, nearly half the world’s 2.2 billion children are at extremely high risk of the impacts of the climate crisis, threatening their ability to survive, grow and thrive. Many children live in marginalized areas that experience multiple, overlapping climate hazards. Droughts, floods, wildfires and extreme heat, coupled with other environmental stresses, exacerbate humanitarian crises.

They also undermine the full spectrum of children’s rights, from access to clean air, food and safe water, to education, housing, and even their right to survive.

Yet, despite the unique vulnerabilities of children to climate change, their needs and perspectives are noticeable by their absence in many climate policies, actions and funding decisions. In fact, only 2.4 per cent of climate finance from multilateral climate funds directly support projects incorporating child-responsive activities, such as climate education or food security projects.

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Heading into COP29 this fall, the issue of climate finance looms large on the global agenda. Important and hopeful reforms are currently being discussed. It is vital that Canada play its part in determining a new and increased collective, quantified goal on climate finance. Including a child-rights lens on climate in that commitment will pave the way for meaningful change for the children bearing the brunt of the climate crisis.

Canada also has an opportunity to join the 50 countries who have committed to a child and youth-centred focus on climate action by signing UNICEF’s Intergovernmental Declaration on Children, Youth and Climate Action.

Any climate change action that Canada takes or plans for must ensure that children’s rights move from the sidelines to the front and centre.

Sevaun Palvetzian is the President and CEO of UNICEF Canada.

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