Are climate plans protecting children from hunger?
Climate change is making life more difficult for children around the world. Droughts, floods and extreme weather are leaving families struggling to put food on the table, access clean water and earn a living. For children, the consequences go far beyond hunger, affecting their health, education, safety and well-being and, ultimately, their childhood and future.
This raises an important question: Are national climate policies doing enough to protect children?
In 2026, World Vision and researchers from the University of Galway reviewed the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and, where available, National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) of 83 profiles. This included 82 country profiles and a collective submission from the European Union. The aim of this work was to assess how climate policies address hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition*, especially among children.
The Hungry Futures Index 2.0 found that although climate policies often acknowledge general hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition, they rarely address children’s specific nutritional needs and vulnerabilities. Even where these issues are recognised, commitments, meaningful action and sufficient funding remain limited.
The Scale of the Problem
Explore the full Hungry Futures Index 2.0
Methodology for the Hungry Futures Index 2.0 (2026)
This methodological note explains the Index's analytical framework, data sources, scoring criteria and limitations. It outlines how countries are assessed on their recognition of hunger and food insecurity, consideration of children's needs and rights, opportunities for child and youth participation, and commitments to concrete policy action.
Assessing Child Hunger in National Climate Policy
Drawing on findings from the Hunger Futures Index 2.0 assessment, this policy briefing examines how child hunger and nutrition are reflected in national climate policies. It highlights key gaps, emerging good practice, and opportunities to strengthen child-responsive climate action so that children's nutritional needs are better addressed in climate commitments and implementation plans.
What needs to change: putting children at the heart of climate action
Child-responsive NDC and NAP implementation
- Deliver ambitious implementation of NDCs and NAPs through measurable, child-responsive targets that uphold children's rights and promote intergenerational equity.
- Recognise child hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition as critical climate risks, with clear targets, indicators and accountability mechanisms to address them.
- Accelerate climate action to keep 1.5°C within reach and protect children, livelihoods and ecosystems from worsening climate impacts.
Climate-resilient agri-food systems for children's nutrition and health
- Include measurable, nutrition-sensitive adaptation targets and child-specific nutrition indicators, such as stunting, wasting and micronutrient deficiencies, in national climate frameworks.
- Scale up agroecological approaches and other nature-based, locally led solutions, including Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR), to build resilient food systems, enhance biodiversity and improve nutrition and food security outcomes for children.
- Align climate and food policies with health, education and social protection systems so climate action addresses the multiple drivers of child hunger.
Children and young people as agents of change
- Embed children's rights, needs and aspirations across NDCs, NAPs and climate finance frameworks, with dedicated measures to address climate-related hunger and malnutrition.
- Ensure children and young people have access to climate information, environmental and climate education, and safe, inclusive and meaningful opportunities to participate in climate decision-making processes.
- Invest in the capacities, resources and institutional mechanisms needed to support the meaningful engagement of children and young people, particularly those facing the greatest climate, hunger and vulnerability risks.
Child-responsive climate finance
- Deliver and scale up international climate finance commitments to support child-responsive adaptation, resilience and food security priorities.
- Increase the availability, accessibility and predictability of adaptation finance, with dedicated support for actions that protect children's health, nutrition, food security and wellbeing.
- Prioritise funding for Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and fragile and conflict-affected contexts, while ensuring climate finance is transparent, locally led, gender-responsive and accountable to children's rights and needs.
Child-responsive loss and damage finance
- Ensure the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage and related funding arrangements explicitly address children's rights, needs and vulnerabilities, including the disproportionate impacts of climate-related hunger and malnutrition.
- Improve direct and accessible funding for affected communities, local actors and child-focused organisations to support locally led response and recovery.
- Provide timely, predictable and adequate support for both immediate relief and long-term recovery, helping children, families and communities recover from climate-related loss and damage.
Child hunger and malnutrition remain largely invisible in national climate plans.
Children cannot remain an afterthought in climate action. Their vulnerability to hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition must be recognised and addressed through concrete, adequately financed commitments and action.
Children’s needs and voices must be better reflected in climate policies.
While many climate plans demonstrate some level of child sensitivity and acknowledge child and youth participation, meaningful inclusion remains limited. Most provide little evidence of how children and young people are actively involved in shaping climate policies.
High food insecurity does not always translate into stronger climate-policy action.
HFI 2.0 places climate-policy scores alongside FAO data on the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in the total population. The two measures answer different questions: FAO data describes population-level food insecurity, while HFI assesses policy attention and action.