Nearly half of the world’s children are living with overlapping climate threats so intense that walking to school, drinking clean water or simply staying healthy have become increasingly precarious.
A new Unicef analysis finds that about 1.1 billion children, almost half of all children globally, are exposed to at least three climate hazards at the same time, ranging from floods and droughts to extreme heat, storms, fires and sand and dust storms. More than four million children face as many as six overlapping hazards.
The figures, drawn from the Children’s Climate Risk Report 2026, show a world in which climate change is no longer unfolding as isolated disasters but as stacked and compounding shocks that reshape childhood.
“Imagine having to swim across a fast-moving river, known for its strong currents and crocodiles, just to make it to school,” said Tom Slaymaker, the chief of Unicef’s Wash (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene), Climate and Environment Data unit.
He was describing the experience of 15-year-old Lorna in Papua New Guinea, where floods have destroyed the bridge linking her home to school. The only way to attend class is to swim through dangerous waters, carrying books and uniforms in a bucket.
“For these children, the impact of climate change is not an abstract or future concern. It is a reality pushing them to risk their lives to not miss out on school,” Slaymaker said.
The report uses such lived realities to illustrate a broader shift: climate hazards are increasingly overlapping, intensifying and interacting in ways that amplify their impacts on children.
Almost every child on Earth is exposed to at least one climate hazard. But the most urgent concern, Unicef says, is the growing prevalence of multiple simultaneous risks.
Drought, extreme heat and heatwaves form the most common combination, affecting more than 296 million children. Another 115 million are exposed to drought, extreme heat and tropical storms.
The combinations matter because hazards rarely occur in isolation. Instead, they trigger cascading effects that move through food systems, infrastructure and public health.
“A drought can leave children hungry and malnourished. A flood that follows can contaminate water supplies and spread diseases like cholera,” Slaymaker said. “Each shock makes the next one more dangerous.”
In the Sahel, millions of children face extreme heat, drought and sand and dust storms simultaneously. In parts of South Asia, including Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan, children are exposed to multiple hazards at higher intensity than almost anywhere else in the world. In small island states, a single tropical storm can overwhelm entire national systems.
While climate hazards are global, vulnerability is shaped by access to basic services such as healthcare, clean water, sanitation, nutrition and education.
In fragile and conflict-affected countries such as Chad, the Central African Republic, Haiti and Sudan, even moderate climate shocks can quickly escalate into life-threatening crises because essential services are stretched or absent.
Unicef estimates that 634 million children lack safe drinking water, while one billion lack safe sanitation. Climate hazards are worsening the gaps, increasing the risk of waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea, one of the leading killers of children.
The report also finds that at least 242 million children had their schooling disrupted by climate-related events in 2024 alone. Many more are displaced from their homes, increasing risks of family separation, exploitation, violence and long-term psychological trauma.
“This is not a warning of what is to come. It is a recognition of our current reality,” Slaymaker said. “And an acknowledgement of how much worse it could get for children.”
Beyond immediate hazards, the report highlights two additional threats that are closely linked to climate change: air pollution and malaria.
Air pollution affects nearly every child globally, while about one billion children live in areas where malaria transmission is possible or present, both conditions exacerbated by warming temperatures and changing rainfall patterns.
Children are especially vulnerable because of their physiology and dependence on functioning social systems. Heat stress, malnutrition, disease outbreaks and psychological trauma all disproportionately affect them, while repeated disruptions to schooling can have lifelong consequences.
“Children cannot always recover from shocks before the next one hits,” Slaymaker warned.
Unicef argues that the solution lies not only in reducing emissions but in strengthening the systems that children rely on most. This includes climate-resilient schools and healthcare facilities, improved water and sanitation systems and early warning systems designed to reach children and the services that they depend on.
Practical interventions already exist: solar-powered schools that remain functional during outages, groundwater systems that replace drying surface sources, improved sanitation that reduces disease risk and storm shelters that protect communities during extreme weather events.
“The message is clear,” Slaymaker added. “Climate change is not only changing the planet but also children.”