CHILDREN growing up in the Middle East are increasingly affected by climate change, and are exposed to heatwaves, dust storms, droughts, and floods, a new report from World Vision says.
Children in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, and the West Bank are exposed to higher temperatures, and have less access to water and food, the report, Growing Up in the Climate Crisis, published last week, says. Researchers spoke to children, in a region that is already experiencing a scarcity of water and rising temperatures. Thirty-nine per cent of the children in this area who had had to leave their home had done so because of climate change rather than conflict, the researchers said.
Areas that rely on agriculture for survival were the most affected, and those communities were already likely to be the most vulnerable. Children reported crop failures and decrease in crop yield and livestock production.
Ninety-seven per cent of the children in Syria, and 94 per cent or those in Lebanon, followed by 72 per cent in Iraq, and 68 per cent in the West Bank, reported having to survive on less food than they needed, owing to crop damage from extreme weather events.
The World Vision report coincides with new research by the BBC which suggests that flaring — the deliberate burning of waste gases during oil drilling — is threatening the health of millions of people in the Middle East.
Evidence analysed by BBC Arabic suggests that dangerous gases — including PM2.5 particulates, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), all of which have been linked with strokes, cancer, asthma, and heart disease — can travel hundreds of miles from oil-mining sites in the Arabian Gulf.
Flaring, which has been banned in some countries, also contributes to global warming.
Climate events are already affecting children’s learning: floods are referred to as one of the most common reasons for children’s inability to attend school. Girls’ attendance was more likely to be disrupted, as they had to help the family, children reported.
World Vision said that climate change was wreaking havoc on the populations of children and young people who were already vulnerable because of continuing conflicts in the region. Children in all the countries where the study took place said that they were worried about climate change, and many reported that increased flooding had kept them away from school.
Aaron Tanner, from the charity, said: “Our report shows that the lived realities of some of the most vulnerable children and young people in the Middle East in the face of climate change are daunting and worrying. The climate crisis is making children’s and young people’s lives even harder, and forcing them out of their homes — for some, for the second time.”
Although it is widely acknowledged that children and young people in vulnerable communities are some of the most affected by climate change, their voices go unheard in the climate debate, and they are frequently the “blind spot” in most countries’ climate policies, the report says.
It calls on the Government to include children and young people at all levels of climate-policy decision-making, to support countries in the Middle East with climate adaptations, and on world leaders at COP28 to listen to children’s concerns.
The research was done in five climate in the Middle East: Nineveh, Iraq; Azraq Refugee Camp, Jordan; Akkar, Lebanon; north-eastern Syria; and the West Bank. Researchers focused on the effect of climate change on vulnerable communities, and children’s mental health, protection, and education.