Carbon credits change climate for suffering children

The organisation has launched the Nature-based Solutions for Children (NbS4C) Hub to develop projects ranging from improved water technology in Pakistan to reforestation in the Philippines.

Save the Children Global Ventures, a global investment group formed in 2022, is leading the effort. Its goal is to use new financial strategies to encourage technological innovation that helps achieve Save the Children’s global goals.

The hub has been launched in partnership with Carbon Neutral, a company specialising in helping organisations gain access to the international carbon credit market.

Save the Children Global Ventures CEO Paul Ronalds said funding the right projects in the right place could make a real difference.

“Well-designed, community-led nature-based solutions, delivered with the right checks and balances, have the potential to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,” he said.

At the same time, such projects could also help the communities they are established in by providing jobs, rehabilitating the local environment, improving people’s health and boosting resilience in the face of to climate change.

Mr Ronalds said tackling climate change was a key priority because of the devastating impact it is having on children across the world.

It is estimated that:

• more than 920 million children face water scarcity

• around 774 million children face the dual threat of poverty and high climate risk

• by 2050, more than 1.2 billion people will be displaced by climate-driven disasters 

“The figures are staggering,” Mr Ronalds said.

“Such profound disruptions interfere with a child’s education, their health and makes them vulnerable to exploitation and violence.”

While advocating using carbon markets to try to alleviate the impact of climate change, Mr Ronalds said it was critical that local communities participated in the design of initiatives and had secure tenure rights.

“We recognise that carbon markets are receiving a lot of valid criticism,” he said.

These criticisms covered a range of accusations, from abuses of Indigenous people's rights, to forced displacement, lack of transparency, greenwashing, and fraudulent projects.

“That is why we are trialling new approaches, putting children’s rights at the centre of programs, and ensuring that they are locally designed and led by communities, with necessary safeguards in place.”

Mr Ronalds said Save the Children established the new hub with the aim of building an ethical, financially sustainable and scalable approach to locally led nature-based solutions.

Save the Children is the first humanitarian and development focused international non-governmental organisation (INGO) accredited by the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

In December 2023 Save the Children partnered with the GCF and Global Partnership for Education to invest $106 million in investment toward building climate-resilient schools in vulnerable countries.

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Untapped billions could fuel greater social impact: Paul Ronalds