Millions of children in Nepal are growing up on the frontlines of the climate crisis, with air pollution, drought, extreme heat and landslides threatening their health, schooling and future prospects, UNICEF has warned in a new report published on Thursday.
The advocacy brief, Growing Up in a Climate Hotspot: The Risks Shaping the Lives and Futures of Nepal’s Children, estimates that 9.9 million children are exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution, making it one of the most widespread environmental threats facing children in the country. A further 7.3 million are exposed to drought, 5.7 million to extreme hot days and 2.9 million to rainfall-triggered landslides, while an estimated 2.4 million children face multiple high-intensity hazards at once.
The findings, drawn from the Global Child Hazard Database, Nepal’s Children’s Climate Risk Index, the Nepal Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2024-25 and UNICEF’s own climate landscape analysis, show that climate change is not only increasing children’s exposure to hazards but also straining the services they depend on. Only 47.5 per cent of Nepal’s population has access to safely managed drinking water, one in four children under five is stunted, and 22 per cent of children live in multidimensional poverty. Climate shocks are also raising the risks of child labour, child marriage, disease outbreaks and lost schooling.
“The climate crisis is increasingly becoming a child rights crisis,” said Alice Akunga, UNICEF’s Representative to Nepal. “Children have contributed least to climate change, yet they are among those bearing its greatest consequences. Every flood, drought, heatwave and pollution episode threatens children’s health, nutrition, education and protection.”
The risks are not shared equally. Children living in poverty, girls, children with disabilities, children from historically marginalised communities and those in remote and climate-vulnerable areas face disproportionately higher dangers while having fewer resources to cope and recover, the brief says.
Nepal formally endorsed the Declaration on Children, Youth and Climate Action at its National Climate Summit on 29 October, and the signed declaration will be handed to UNICEF representatives at COP31 in Türkiye. Ahead of the summit, UNICEF is calling on governments and climate finance institutions to integrate children’s needs into climate policy, adaptation plans and financing, to invest in child-responsive adaptation and loss and damage, and to give children and young people a meaningful say in climate decisions.
“Climate change is not a future problem for children; it is already affecting our lives today,” said Jayanti Bam, UNICEF Nepal’s Youth Advocate for Climate Action. “When floods damage schools, children don’t just lose classrooms. We lose learning opportunities, routines, friendships and a sense of safety.”
All figures in this article come from UNICEF’s brief and its underlying datasets, which have not been independently verified by The Hourly News.
Sources: UNICEF Nepal, “New UNICEF advocacy brief reveals millions of children in Nepal are growing up on the frontlines of the climate crisis”, 5 November 2026 — https://www.unicef.org/nepal/press-releases/new-unicef-advocacy-brief-reveals-millions-children-nepal-are-growing-frontlines ; UNICEF Nepal, “Growing up in a climate hotspot” — https://www.unicef.org/nepal/reports/growing-climate-hotspot
