More than one billion children are now exposed to at least three simultaneous climate hazards, according to the Children's Climate Risk Report 2026. Drawing on a newly developed Global Child Hazard Database, the report maps children's exposure to eight climate hazards, including riverine floods, droughts, tropical storms, heatwaves, extreme heat, fires and sand and dust storms, alongside two climate-sensitive hazards: malaria and ambient air pollution. It represents the most detailed picture to date of how the climate crisis is shaping the lives of the world's youngest population, and finds that the services children depend on are critically underprepared.
The exposure figures are striking. Around 1.8 billion children live in drought-affected areas, 1.5 billion are exposed to more frequent or severe heatwaves, and 1.2 billion face days when temperatures exceed 35 degrees Celsius. Some 662 million children live in tropical storm zones, and 337 million are in riverine flood hazard areas. Almost all children globally, approximately 2.3 billion, live in areas with air pollutant levels above World Health Organization guidelines.
The report identifies 296 million children currently exposed to the combination of drought, extreme heat and heatwaves simultaneously
The compounding nature of these hazards is a central concern. When hazards overlap, their effects multiply. A drought can leave dry vegetation that fuels wildfires, which worsen air quality and leave land vulnerable to flash floods; flooding then destroys schools, contaminates water and displaces communities. The report identifies 296 million children currently exposed to the combination of drought, extreme heat and heatwaves simultaneously.
Water at the centre of vulnerability
The report's findings on water, sanitation and hygiene are particularly stark. In 2024, 634 million children still lacked safely managed drinking water, one billion lacked safely managed sanitation and 489 million lacked basic hygiene services. By 2040, an estimated 600 million children will live in areas of extremely high water stress. Droughts dry up traditional water sources, forcing children, disproportionately girls, to walk long distances and miss school. Floods contaminate supplies and trigger waterborne disease outbreaks. The report stresses that WASH infrastructure must be designed to remain functional under intensifying climate conditions, pointing to UNICEF's installation of 26 wastewater treatment systems across Iraq between 2021 and 2025, which brought safe water access to 144,000 people, including 66,300 children.
The report assesses vulnerability across health, nutrition, education, child protection and social protection. In 2024, 20 million children missed life-saving vaccines. Climate change is projected to cause an additional 28 million children to be wasted and 40 million to be stunted globally by 2050. Between 2016 and 2023, climate hazards triggered 62.1 million internal displacements of children, the equivalent of more than 21,000 per day. In 2024 alone, 242 million students in 85 countries had their schooling disrupted by climate-related events. Nearly 1.8 billion children have no access to social protection, and over 130 million people could be pushed into extreme poverty by 2030 because of climate change.
The countries facing the greatest combined burden are those classified as fragile, landlocked or small island states. In the Sahel, more than 95 per cent of children in Chad are exposed to at least three simultaneous hazards, while almost 90 per cent have no access to electricity and more than 85 per cent lack basic sanitation. Small Island Developing States face a different but equally acute problem: in 24 of them, over 99 per cent of children are now exposed to tropical storms, meaning that schools, clinics, water systems and food supply chains can all be disrupted at the same time.
Data, decisions and calls to action
Central to the report is the launch of the Global Child Hazard Database, a publicly available, high-resolution dataset designed to support risk-informed decisions on climate adaptation finance, disaster preparedness and investment in child-critical services. It uses WorldPop's Children's Population Layer, the first global spatial dataset mapping child populations at high resolution, enabling child-specific exposure measurement. UNICEF describes the database as a tool for governments to prioritise locations in proposals to the Green Climate Fund, inform national adaptation plans and guide subnational programming.
The report's policy recommendations include building and maintaining climate-resilient WASH infrastructure, decarbonising water and sanitation services, expanding shock-responsive social protection, and strengthening health and education systems against climate disruption. It also calls for the accelerated phase-out of fossil fuels. Citing analysis from the World Resources Institute, UNICEF notes that every dollar invested in climate adaptation generates more than ten dollars in benefits over a ten-year period. The report further draws on the 2025 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, which affirmed that states have legally binding obligations to protect human rights, including child rights, when taking climate action.
