The Right to A Healthy Environment Vs. Climate-Induced Urban Child Poverty

Abstract

Climate change is accelerating rural-to-urban migration across Africa, the Mediterranean and Middle East. For children in migrant families, arrival in cities often means a trade-off: leaving climate-exposed rural areas for urban settlements that are themselves hotspots for heat islands, air pollution, and inadequate housing. This paper examines the tension between two emerging rights frameworks: the UN-recognized right to a healthy environment, and children’s rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, specifically Articles 24 and 27 (adequate standard of living]. Focusing on secondary cities and urban peripheries that receive climate migrants, I argue that current adaptation and urban planning policies frequently overlook migrant children’s disproportionate environmental exposure. Using a rights-based lens, the study asks: 1) How does climate-induced urbanisation shift environmental health risks onto children in informal or low-income neighborhoods? 2) To what extent do municipal adaptation funds and child protection systems integrate migration status and age as vulnerability factors? The paper concludes that without explicit recognition of “climate-migrant childhood” in urban policy, the right to a healthy environment risks becoming unevenly distributed by age, origin, and place of settlement.