Young people reconsider having children due to climate change

Young people worldwide are having second thoughts about having children due to the effects of climate change.

This is according to a Unicef poll between July and August with over 243,512 young people from 163 countries.

The poll found that globally, two in five said climate impacts have made them reconsider their desire to have children.

“Concern was highest in African regions, where nearly half of respondents said they were now on the fence,” Unicef said.

The Middle East and North Africa accounted for 44 per cent, while in Sub-Saharan Africa, it was 43 per cent.

The results were published on Wednesday at the COP27 climate conference currently taking place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

The report said that young people from these regions report having experienced a range of climate shocks which impacted their access to food and water, and depleted family income as well.

Paloma Escudero, head of Unicef’s delegation at COP27, said on  UNICEF's platform that the impacts of climate change have gone beyond the physical now.

“They are far more than floods, droughts and heatwaves. They extend to our very sense of hope,” she said.

She said young people in Africa are seeing the impact of these shocks firsthand and it is changing their plans for the future.

Nobody wants to have a child in the worsening conditions that climate change is bringing.

In Kenya, approximately 4.3 million citizens are affected by the drought.

The country is facing the worst drought in 40 years due to failed rainfall in three to four consecutive years.

The Kenya Red Cross has said some of the counties affected by drought include Garissa, Isiolo, Kajiado, Kitui, Mandera, Marsabit, Laikipia, Samburu, Tana River, Turkana and Wajir which are said to be in the Alarm drought phase.

Embu, Kilifi, Kwale, Makueni, Meru, Narok, Nyeri, Tharaka Nithi and Taita Taveta are in the Alert drought phase while the remaining three counties, Baringo, West Pokot and Lamu are in the normal drought phase.