Nearly Half of the World’s Children Face at Least Three Overlapping Climate Hazards

Nearly half of the world’s children—about 1.1 billion—live in places exposed to at least three climate hazards, according to [UNICEF’s Children’s Climate Risk Report 2026](https://www.unicef.org/reports/childrens-climate-risk-report-2026). More than 4 million children may face as many as six hazards at once.

The report uses new information from UNICEF’s Global Child Hazard Database to map children’s exposure to eight threats, including drought, extreme heat, heatwaves, floods, fires, tropical storms, and sand and dust storms. It also examines whether children can rely on services that reduce the consequences of those hazards, such as health care, education, safe water, sanitation, nutrition and child protection.

Almost every child in the world is exposed to at least one climate-related hazard. But the central concern is not only the number of threats in a location. Hazards can reinforce one another and put pressure on the same systems that children need every day.

The most widespread three-part combination is drought, extreme heat and heatwaves, affecting about 296 million children. A further 115 million children are exposed to drought, extreme heat and tropical storms. Drought can reduce food and water supplies while increasing the risk of fires. Floods and fires can destroy homes, schools, clinics and water infrastructure, making recovery harder when communities are already under strain.

The risks are distributed across regions and income levels. Children in wealthier countries are not outside the reach of climate hazards, although stronger institutions and infrastructure may provide more protection. In France, UNICEF estimates that about 11 million children in metropolitan areas are exposed to heatwaves, including roughly 2.5 million who may experience severe episodes. In France’s overseas territories, every child is exposed to tropical-storm risk, according to [UNICEF France](https://www.unicef.fr/article/pres-de-la-moitie-des-enfants-de-la-planete-sont-exposes-a-au-moins-trois-menaces-climatiques-conjuguees/).

In other places, several hazards overlap with fewer resources available to respond. The Sahel is home to more than 4 million children facing a combination of heatwaves, extreme heat and sand or dust storms. Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan are among the countries where overlapping exposure is especially pronounced. Fragile, landlocked countries can face a similar double burden: severe environmental threats alongside limited access to health services, clean water, education and protection.

The effects are often practical and immediate. When a bridge is washed away, children may struggle to reach school; reporting on the UNICEF findings described a community in Papua New Guinea where students cross a dangerous river after a bridge was destroyed. Heat can make classrooms unsafe, while floods and storms can interrupt lessons for weeks or damage school buildings altogether. Clinics and water systems can also become inaccessible just when illness and injury risks are rising.

The wider health picture adds further pressure. [Al Jazeera’s account](https://liberties.aljazeera.com/en/half-the-worlds-children-face-overlapping-climate-threats/) notes that air pollution affects virtually every child and that about 1 billion children live in areas where climate conditions influence exposure to malaria. These factors are not necessarily counted as additional hazards in every child’s individual total, but they show how climate risks interact with existing threats to health.

UNICEF’s framework therefore combines three questions: what hazards children are exposed to, how vulnerable they are, and whether essential services can cope. Exposure alone does not determine the outcome. A heatwave may be less damaging where homes, schools and health systems are prepared, while a shorter event can be more dangerous where water, nutrition and medical care are already unreliable.

The report calls for two kinds of action at the same time. Cutting greenhouse-gas emissions is necessary to limit the future growth of climate hazards. Communities also need child-focused adaptation: stronger schools, clinics, water and sanitation systems, emergency planning, social protection and climate education. The findings make the issue global not because every child faces the same danger, but because children everywhere depend on systems that climate change is increasingly testing.