Young Lives’ longitudinal research reveals in stark terms how childhood exposure to climate shocks such as droughts and floods – including during the gestation period - has an unequal impact on children’s development, affecting their growth, nutrition, cognitive skills and access to education. This impedes their learning progress, with poorest children most affected, as documented in our recent Vietnam policy brief. 

Our call to action for more robust research and a broad approach to supporting vulnerable children achieve a quality education and building resilience in the face of poverty, inequalities and increasing climate shocks, was showcased at the 2021 COP26 Gender Day Event, ‘Our Future, Our Voice – Girls’ Education and Tackling Climate Change'.  
 

Young Lives evidence was also directly referenced in the FCDO’s Position Paper on Education, Climate and the Environment, setting out the UK’s ambition in this critical new area of policy.

Our recent ground-breaking research in Ethiopia and Peru shows that social protection can reverse the negative effects of early poverty and climate shocks on children’s foundational cognitive skills – the basic building blocks for life-long learning – such as long-term memory and the ability to concentrate on a specific task, which has also been showcased in a new BBC Ideas short film.    

Young Lives will continue to raise the profile of this critical new area of policy and inform global debates, including in the run up to COP28 in November 2023.