On 22^nd June 2023, members of the Children’s Environmental Rights Initiative (CERI) coalition released a new climate finance analysis.

Titled ‘Falling short: Addressing The Climate Finance Gap For Children’, the study analyses how ‘child responsive’ projects funded by key multilateral climate funds are – over a 17 year period. The report concludes that children are being failed by climate funding commitments, despite bearing the brunt of the climate crisis.

‘Child responsiveness’ is defined as addressing the distinct and heightened risks children experience from the climate crisis, strengthening the resilience of child-critical social services and empowering children as agents of change.

This is further evidence that despite children being highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, they are being neglected in an influential segment of current international climate finance. The report therefore provides evidence in support of CERI coalition demands for climate finance which places children’s rights and child-critical social services at the forefront.

A collaboration between CERI members Capita, Plan International, Save the Children, and UNICEF, the study launch took place on the sidelines of the ‘Summit for a New Global Financing Pact’ – a gathering of world leaders in Paris, France aiming to lay the groundwork for a new financial system suited to the common challenges of the 21st century including climate change.

The launch event brought together representatives from the Adaptation Fund, Global Environment Facility, UNICEF, and child and youth activists Francisco Vera (Colombia) and Ashley Lashley (Barbados). You can watch it here.