Save the Children’s Statement of Commitment on Climate Action

Children face great risks in situations caused by climate change. Aside from natural disasters, climate change has led
to increases in infections such as Lyme disease, diarrhea, and parasites, which are often more dangerous to children
than adults. Similar to many countries in the world, climate change in the Philippines has led to less food—and less
healthy food.

For Save the Children, “resilience is the ability of children, families and systems to protect and safeguard all
children against shocks and stresses to ensure the realization of their rights to survival, development, education and
protection. In many disaster-affected areas in the country, resilience building begins with coping and recovering
from the impacts of climate change.

With the current global efforts in cutting carbon emissions in half, doing it in 10 years only provides a 50%
possibility of staying below a 1.5 degrees Celsius global temperature rise and reversing the risks of its effects may
become out of our control already. If we do not do something about it, we are going to fail our children.

Save the Children deeply acknowledge the scientific data on climate change and its effects to the Filipino children
and other vulnerable sectors in the community.

We also acknowledge that climate change is one of the biggest global threats in the 21 st century and the current
efforts being done by the Philippines are nowhere near enough in avoiding this threat. Even with the rise of urgency
in this matter, the level of greenhouse gas emissions continues to increase. This threat to the Filipino children
becomes more immense in every passing year.

As the current generation of adults, we have a responsibility to secure a future to our children. There is a dire need to
protect them and the coming new generations from risks caused by climate change. Thus, it is crucial that we make
climate change an urgent priority in policy making, advocacy, research, and practice.

To save the Filipino children of today and tomorrow, SCP makes the commitment to:

1. Work with all relevant stakeholders so that the environmental and climate impacts is part of the design and
implementation of our programs, projects, and within our operations.

2. Design specific measures to target environmental degradation and support climate action to ensure
children’s access to a safe, healthy, and protective environment, including but not limited to environmental
protection efforts, climate change adaptation and mitigation.
3. Publicly make clear how climate change and environmental degradation negatively affects children and
will work with children and child-led groups to make their voices be heard about how climate change and
environmental degradation affects them, and what demands they can raise with decision-makers and
program planners.

4. Reduce vulnerabilities, increase coping capacities, and enhance resilience of children of all ages and
gender, particularly the most marginalized and deprived.

5. Increase the capacity of families, communities and systems to protect and safeguard all children against
shocks and stresses and to recover and adapt from the impacts of hazards and climate change, to ensure the
realization of the children’s rights to survival, development, protection and participation.

6. Capacitate the children by helping them acquire appropriate knowledge and skills to seek information, help
themselves and others, and act on various situations and contexts they face and to be able to contribute in
identifying solutions in addressing risks including the impacts of disasters, health emergencies and climate
change.

7. Support boys and girls to have strong support system, safe spaces, opportunities to learn and develop skills,
and a sense of belonging even in the midst of humanitarian situations and the impacts of climate change.

8. Advocate platforms and policies for children’s participation in risk reduction and climate resilience are
established at various levels.