Children’s rights must be at the heart of the Paris climate agreement

Despite rhetoric about protecting our planet for future generations, children and human rights have been largely absent from COP21 negotiations

Millions of lives are being turned upside down by life-threatening extreme weather. Communities are no stranger to the disastrous impacts of climate change, but this year's El Nino is wreaking havoc. Although the warming of the Pacific Ocean is a natural phenomenon, climate change is increasing in the intensity and destructiveness it unleashes in the form of floods, droughts and typhoons. Unicef has warned that an estimated 11 million children are at risk from hunger, disease and lack of water (pdf) in eastern and southern Africa alone, and many more face record-smashing droughts and floods across swathes of Latin America, Asia and the Pacific.

Children, particularly the most destitute, are disproportionately vulnerable to climate change. Climate-related disasters and changing weather patterns increase the risk of malnutrition, vector-borne diseases such as malaria, and water and food-borne diarrhoea - all major killers of children who, according to the World Health Organisation, suffer a much greater burden of these climate-related diseases than adults.