Peer-reviewed article
Nurturing care as a critical buffer against climate change impacts on child development
Jorge A. Cuartas, Francis Vergunst ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This paper argues that nurturing care—provided by parents and caregivers through stable environments, health support, safety, learning opportunities, and emotional relationships—is crucial for protecting children's development during climate change. Climate hazards like heatwaves, storms, and floods increasingly threaten children's access to education, healthcare, and essential services. Children are particularly vulnerable because of their developmental stage and limited capacity to protect themselves. The authors contend that nurturing care acts as a buffer between climate risks and negative developmental outcomes, yet this protective mechanism is largely absent from climate change research and policy.
Key points
- Climate change impacts (heatwaves, wildfires, storms, floods) have long-lasting negative effects on employment, education, healthcare, and essential services
- Children are particularly vulnerable to climate harms due to developmental immaturity and limited capacity to mitigate risks
- Nurturing care is defined as stable environments with health and nutrition support, safety, learning opportunities, and emotionally supportive relationships
- Caregivers (parents, grandparents, relatives, foster parents) provide the primary buffer between climate hazards and adverse child outcomes
- Nurturing care is rarely included in climate change research and policy despite its central role in child life outcomes
Limitations
This excerpt presents the conceptual framing and problem statement but does not present empirical evidence, data, or evaluation of interventions. The document cannot tell us which specific nurturing care practices are most effective, what evidence exists for their protective effects, or how to operationalise these interventions at scale.
Abstract
We examine empirical and conceptual considerations related to the role of nurturing care for protecting human capital formation in the context of climate change. Climate change is a pressing global challenge. Heatwaves, wildfires, storms, and floods are becoming more frequent and severe, and their direct impact and aftermath can have long-lasting negative effects on employment, education, healthcare, and access to essential services. Children are particularly vulnerable to these harms due to their developmental immaturity and limited capacity to mitigate and avoid risks [1,2]. Consequently, parents and other adult primary caregivers - such as grandparents, relatives, and foster parents (hereafter "caregivers") - provide the primary buffer between climate hazards and adverse developmental outcomes. They do this through nurturing care, defined as the provision of stable environments that promote children's health and nutrition, safety and security, opportunities for learning, and emotionally supportive relationships [3]. Despite the central role of nurturing care for children's life outcomes, it rarely appears in climate change research and policy discourse.