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In light of the recent 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), Dr Montira Pongsiri, SEA SAN Council Member and Senior Advisor on Climate and Health at Save the Children, reflects on how the science-policy interface and evidence-based decision-making is critical in addressing the planetary health crisis.

Today, Kenya, along with the rest of the Horn of Africa, is experiencing one of the worst droughts in 40 years. Over 4.35 million Kenyans are going hungry while over 942,000 children require urgent treatment for acute malnutrition. One of the main causes of this unprecedented two-year drought is climate change, which has generated a lot of debate at the ongoing COP 27 summit, with climate change adaptation being one of the key highlights of this year’s discussions. Climate change is a long-term threat to food security and nutrition; it reduces crop yields, impairs nutrient quality and dietary diversity, and disrupts water and sanitation. Save the Children’s recent Generation Hope report shows that 774 million children in the world are exposed to high climate risks. It found that over 100 billion dollars could be saved every year responding to disasters if contingency planning, social protection and financial inclusion were improved.

The climate crisis is pushing children and their families to flee their houses and their countries in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region. Extreme weather combined with other vulnerabilities such as poverty and inequalities, have undermined food, water, and even economic security.

More than two years after schools around the world shut their doors in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Transforming Education Summit (TES) in September couldn’t have been more timely. Global education was in dire crisis before the pandemic, with millions of children around the world out of school and not learning from a quality, safe and inclusive education. With the extended school closures, disparities in access to online and distance learning, inadequate resources to support students to return to school, and the impacts of conflict and climate change, the learning outcomes of the poorest and most marginalised children are now even more at threat.

To better understand how many children across the world are affected by this dual poverty and climate risk, we conducted new data analysis, published in our new report Generation Hope. Our analysis found that 774 million children globally – one out of every three children – both live in poverty and are profoundly impacted by the climate crisis.

2.4 billion reasons to end the global climate & inequality crisis

In honour of World Mental Health Day on the 10th of October, I attended a Global Ministerial Mental Health Summit in Rome where senior leaders from around the world were placing a spotlight on issues related to mental health

Leaders and policy makers from across the world will be gathering at a series of important global meetings in the coming weeks - at the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, the COP27 Summit in Egypt, and the G20 Summit in Indonesia. As they pack their bags for these meetings, there is one critical thing they must not leave behind.