09/03/2026
This back to school season, we've been digging into some of the biggest barriers preventing children from accessing education. For our final installment, we're looking at the climate crisis. 🌍
For millions of families, it's already reshaping daily life: disrupting food supplies, destroying infrastructure, and displacing people by the millions. And too often, it's pulling children out of the classroom too. Here's how:
➡️ After floods, storms, droughts, and other extreme weather events, roads are inaccessible, bridges collapse, rivers dry up and the journey to school becomes dangerous or impossible, even if the classroom itself is untouched.
➡️ Crop failures and damage to infrastructure can push families into poverty. Suddenly, uniforms, transport, exam fees, and school supplies become unaffordable and these hidden costs pull children out of school.
➡️ In 2024, 45.8 million people were internally displaced by weather and climate disasters. For children, this means starting a new school in an unfamiliar place which often comes with anxiety and stress (that’s if there are any school places available in their new communities).
➡️ When schooling becomes irregular and too expensive for families, girls are the first to be pulled out of classes. Often, they’re pulled into unpaid care work, early marriage or labor, making this disruption far more likely to become a permanent drop out.
➡️ A functioning school system needs paid teachers, safe routes, predictable routines, and confidence in families that sending a child to school is worth the risk. Climate shocks erode all of that, even if the school is never actually closed.
That's why Global Fund for Children puts funding directly in the hands of young climate activists. Because they know how the climate crisis is affecting young people in their own communities and are developing innovative and unique solutions to address those issues and build climate resilience.
