Climate change - Scottish National Adaptation Plan 2024-2029: child rights and wellbeing impact assessment

Annex 1 – Analysis of Evidence: Existing research/reports/policy expertise

Health and Wellbeing

There is a growing evidence base of short- and long-term impacts of processing repeated climate disasters on children’s mental health, life expectancy and cancer rates. Extreme weather can also disrupt preventative healthcare and education which is linked to a variety of health outcomes.

Children require more food and water per unit of bodyweight than adults which makes them more vulnerable to food and water scarcity. Children at critical periods of their growth and development will be the most impacted by increased food insecurity. Disruption to food chains can cause a variety of health impacts – the Royal Collage of Pediatrics and Childrens Health (RCPCH) notes ‘underweight-malnutrition increases the risk of dying from infections, and overweight-malnutrition is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer’. Interruptions to water supplies in particular are likely to have significant health and wellbeing impacts on the very young.

Following flooding incidences in other countries, evidence has shown the use of unsafe water sources, such as surface water, and the spread of faecal matter into water resources after flooding, increases the spread of water-borne diseases and food insecurity, resulting in higher rates of under-five mortality in flood-affected areas. Similarly during heatwaves, very young children are especially vulnerable to heat-related death with risks increased if the child is malnourished or homeless.

In 2022, the Mental Health Foundation found that in the UK, more than 2 in 5 young people (41% of those aged 18 to 24) reported that thoughts and feelings about climate change have a negative impact on their mental health. 42% of young people aged 11 to 25 surveyed across all local authorities in Scotland reported that climate change was one of the most important issues for young people in Scotland today.

More specifically, a Scottish Government research review on flood disadvantage found flooding to be associated with ‘increased mental health and behavioural problems in children, as well as increases in the incidence of a range of diseases’. Following flood events, children have been found to suffer considerable psychological trauma.

In 2019, BBC Newsround polled children on a variety of climate-related issues:

• 62% of 8-16 year olds in Scotland were worried about climate change.
• 61% of 8-16 year olds in Scotland felt their voice was not being listened to when it comes to climate change.
• Roughly one in five 8-16 year olds in Scotland reported thinking about climate change had kept them awake and or stopped them from eating (21%) or that they have previously had a bad dream about climate change (19%).

Children are more vulnerable than adults to the impacts of air pollution which are exacerbated by climate change. By breathing faster than adults, they inhale more airborne toxicants in proportion to their weight. Exposure to air pollutants during pregnancy and early childhood can also have harmful and irreversible effects on the development of their organs with the potential for health problems including respiratory issues as an adult.

Education

The importance of protecting the physical infrastructure of education from climate-related hazards has been emphasized in a paper on urban hazard mitigation and a case study on disaster management. Extreme weather can also cause disruption to education as well as extreme heat affecting a child’s ability to learn. The Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association writes “there is currently no legislation setting out maximum temperatures in a similar way to minimum temperatures since the effect of these depends very largely on the accompanying humidity”.

The IPCC (2014) have highlighted value of general education in enabling effective adaptation to climate change. While Scotland has a sustainability education approach termed Learning For Sustainability^[1], there has been criticism from academics on ‘climate justice’ (a concept prioritizing the theories and politics of social justice in debates over climate action) education that it remains an ‘underdeveloped and poorly grasped concept in Scottish education’.

Transportation

The Transport Scotland commissioned the Poverty Alliance to explore the relationship between child poverty and transport, as part of the Scottish Government’s Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2018-2022. Key findings included:

• Transport was an essential part of the lives of low-income families and critical in terms of shaping their experience of poverty. Transport has the potential to exacerbate the hardship families were facing, as well as being a tool to draw upon as a way of alleviating poverty. For example, accessing employment or education.
• Several factors shaped household experiences: place had a particular influence if living in a rural setting; caring responsibilities; age of child or children; and other household characteristics such as health conditions or disabilities as well as legal obligations like shared contact.
• Choices and decision-making processes were shaped by transport costs. This affected parent and caregivers as they looked to mitigate the effects of living on a low income and prioritized the experience of the child/children within the household. This required both management and planning, and often resulted in additional stress on families. For those with support networks with access to private transport, they discussed the reliance on this as an alternative.
• For families living under more precarious circumstances, like temporary accommodation or facing more transient housing challenges, public transport was important in allowing access to basic services. Maintaining engagement with services across different areas incurred higher costs and pressures to find additional money for longer journeys or journeys that resulted in multiple forms of transport.
• COVID-19 affected families’ use and experience of transport. Key impacts included reduced access to public transport as well as reduced uptake. For some, use of public transport during the pandemic was a source of anxiety due to potential transmission.
• Young people within the study saw transport as integral for access to education, leisure and social networks. Young people reported transition points, such as moving into further or higher education or accessing employment as financial pressure points in their usage of public transport.

In general, disruptions to transport will likely impact children and young people along with all other users. Disruptions in the event of extreme weather events will also lead to limitation of children and young people being able to exercise some of their rights depending on their geographic location.

Socio-economic disadvantage

The adaptive capacity of households experiencing socio-economic disadvantage is likely to be reduced due to limited economic resource to fund or participate in adaptation measures. This will in turn impact any children and young people living within the household.

The RCPCH states:

“The impacts of climate change will not be the same for everyone due to the differing adaptive capacities of children and young people and their families, which may widen health inequalities. Low-income households may have limited economic resources which will decrease their capacity to adapt, for example, their homes to mitigate the effects of climate change … When a household’s adaptive capacity is lower, this can lead to an increased risk of heat-related deaths for children and young people. While living in cold and damp or mouldy homes can additionally exacerbate respiratory illnesses.”

This is likely to be further exacerbated by the decision-making power for households being held by adults, who are less likely than children to recognize climate change and its impacts as an immediate threat and in turn respond to climate risks.

Evidence for the overall Scottish population^[2] shows:

• Air pollution exposure in Scotland is often worse in inner city deprived areas.
• In 2021, most adults (70%) reported living within a five minute walk of their nearest area of green or blue space. This proportion was lower for adults in the 20% most deprived areas (62%)^[3].

In 2022, extreme weather, along with the cost of energy inputs, accounted for the majority of the reasons behind the UK’s rise in food prices. Children experiencing socio-economic disadvantage are more likely to feel the impacts of increasing food prices.

The health impacts of food insecurity caused by climate impacts on food supply chains is recorded above (page 4). Those living with socio-economic disadvantage are likely to be at higher risk of these impacts than those without, with children already being overrepresented within socio-economic disadvantage metrics. Referrals to Trussel Trust food banks in Scotland have an overrepresentation of households with children^[4]. More specifically, single parents families (a group with known higher levels of socio-economic disadvantage) are amongst those under the age of 65 most likely to experience food insecurity. For those already struggling with food insecurity, the impact of climate-related shocks to food security will likely be greater.

People experiencing homelessness are shown to have greater vulnerability in relation to climate change. Of the 32,242 households assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness (intentional or unintentional) in Scotland in 2022, this included 16,263 children with 29% of the households containing children. Households with children spend, on average, the longest in temporary accommodation (days, both open and closed cases).