Source: Save the Children
In 2025, children were deeply affected by climate disasters around the world – from heatwaves that forced schools to close to flash floods and storms that flattened infrastructure and pushed children and families to live in temporary shelters.
Save the Children data this year showed about 136,000 children a day have been affected by climate disasters over the past 30 years, highlighting the need for decisive action to protect children against the impacts of climate change.
Two million children would avoid living with unprecedented lifetime exposure to droughts if we can collectively reach the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C by 2100 [2]
Here are five times in 2025 when climate disasters disrupted children’s lives.
- Asia floods: In late 2025 devastating floods left hundreds of people, including children, dead. The floods – some of the worst in a generation in some countries – forced schools to close, leaving tens of thousands of children out of education, including in flooded areas of Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Across many of the affected countries, Save the Children and local partners created safe spaces for children where they could play, learn and recover. We also delivered essential aid to affected families.
- The strongest hurricane on record in 2025: Hurricane Melissa unleashed devastating winds and torrential rain across Haiti and the Dominican Republic. According to the Imperial College Storm Model (IRIS), climate change increased the extreme rainfall associated with Melissa by 16%.[1] Save the Children launched emergency responses in Haiti and the Dominican Republic to support children in the hardest-hit areas. Here are 10 Hurricane Safety Tips for families and children.
- Dangerous heat forces schools to shut in South Sudan: In February, dangerously high temperatures forced schools across South Sudan to close for the second year in a row , putting learning out of reach for many children and pushing them further into risks like early marriage, child labour and recruitment into armed groups. This also highlighted the severe impact of heatwaves on children studying in schools with no air conditioning and poor ventilation.
- Malnutrition in Madagascar:. In Madagascar, prolonged dry spells and floods caused by cyclones, contributed to agricultural losses this year and cases of malnutrition among children under five are now expected to increase by 54% in Madagascar in the coming months, according to an analysis by Save the Children. Food insecurity in Madagascar is the result of several factors, including recurring climate shocks. [3].
- Persistent storms in the Philippines: Children in the Philippines were hit by 23 tropical cyclones this year [4], with several studies showing a relationship between rising ocean temperatures and increasing typhoon intensity. Typhoon Kalmaegi, which battered the Philippines in November , killed about 200 people, including babies and children, and affected areas of the country that were already suffering from the impact of a 6.9 magnitude earthquake that struck south-central Philippines. “Just when they’re about ready to start recovery, another disaster arrives, closing schools and displacing communities,” Faisah Ali, Humanitarian Manager, Save the Children Philippines, said at the time.
About Save the Children NZ:
Save the Children works in 120 countries across the world. The organisation responds to emergencies and works with children and their communities to ensure they survive, learn and are protected.
Save the Children NZ currently supports international programmes in Fiji, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Laos, Nepal, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. Areas of work include child protection, education and literacy, disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation, and alleviating child poverty.
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