Climate change increases the risk of child labor. Due to the consequences of weather-related disasters, families are “often forced to resort to desperate measures such as child labor so that they can survive,” explained the German representatives of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the UN Children’s Fund. UNICEF.
It is becoming clear that the global community’s goal of eliminating child labor by 2025 can no longer be achieved. “Climate change will become a driver of child labor due to poverty if the global community does not take countermeasures,” said ILO Germany Director Annette Niederfrance. Children are already “being hit full force by climate change,” says Christian Schneider, director of UNICEF Germany.
160 million children affected
According to the latest ILO and UNICEF estimates from 2021, approximately 160 million children under the age of 18 are affected by child labor worldwide. Almost half of them work under dangerous conditions. Developments such as the consequences of the Covid pandemic, current conflicts and climate-related disasters have not yet been taken into account, the report said.
Weather extremes such as heat waves, droughts, hurricanes and floods have hit people in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia very hard in recent years and have particularly increased child labor, the ILO and UNICEF also explain. “Political measures at national and global levels that shape climate change and urgent transformation processes in a social and just way” are necessary. “This includes, in particular, decent work for adults and social protection for parents and children.”
Source: Krone
I am an experienced and passionate journalist with a strong track record in news website reporting. I specialize in technology coverage, breaking stories on the latest developments and trends from around the world. Working for Today Times Live has given me the opportunity to write thought-provoking pieces that have caught the attention of many readers.
