Issue paper on child labour and climate change

This paper is aimed at providing an initial picture of some of the key channels through which climate change is linked to child labor, and the broad implications for policy moving forward. This paper explains that while it is widely recognized that climate change is affecting the global labor force, its effects on child labor have received less research attention and cannot be directly derived from its effects on adult work, as the underlying drivers of child labor and its associated risks are quite different. This paper demonstrates that children are a population group particularly at risk from the system shocks caused by climate change, such as industrial disruption, food insecurity, and compromised health, with particular threats to the agriculture sector, where 70% of all child labor is located.