World Vision Announces US$500 Million Global Plan to Protect Children and the Amazon from the Climate Crisis
Press Release. - London/Brazil 18 November 2025. As the global leaders are meeting at the UN climate conference, COP30 in Belem, at the heart of the Amazon basin, global relief, development, and advocacy organisation World Vision has announced an ambitious US$500 million plan to protect children living in the Amazonian communities facing the escalating impacts of the climate crisis. The initiative already backed by US$21.5 million, aims to support 10 million people across Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela by 2030, positioning children at the heart of global climate action.
The organisation warns that the Amazon home to more than 27 million people and the world’s largest rainforest has become a stark reflection of the world’s broken promises on climate justice. Nearly half of the population lives in poverty and over 40% are children, many growing up amid violence, hunger and displacement. World Vision argues that protecting the Amazon’s ecosystems is inseparable from protecting its children.
We can no longer see the climate crisis as purely environmental; it is a child rights crisis. Children are losing their homes, their health and their future and that should serve as a wake-up call to every leader at COP30.” Said Joao Diniz, World Vision’s Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
World Vision’s plan is rooted in local leadership and evidence-based approaches that have already transformed communities across Africa and Asia. It will focus on three interconnected priorities:
Protecting children’s right to life and their wellbeing: Expanding access to clean water, sanitation, nutrition, health and education for children and families.
Restoring ecosystems for children’s rights to a healthy environment: Regenerating 3 million hectares of degraded land and conserving 22 million hectares of rainforest.
Building sustainable livelihoods: Empowering women, youth and Indigenous peoples to lead economic and ecological renewal through regenerative agriculture and climate-resilient value chains.
The organisation calls for half of all climate finance to support adaptation and one-fifth to be directed to fragile and conflict-affected contexts, where children face the harshest consequences of climate disruption. It is also pressing for the Fund to Respond to Loss and Damage to adopt specific criteria for child protection, arguing that no climate agreement can be just if it excludes those most vulnerable.
“There can be no green future without justice,” said Diniz. “The Amazon is both the heart of our planet and the thermometer of global inequality. Hunger, poverty and deforestation are intertwined and children are paying the highest price. Protecting life on Earth begins with protecting the children of the Amazon. Their survival and our collective future are one and the same.”
The Amazon’s story, World Vision contends, is the world’s story. Its degradation will reverberate across continents from the food crises in Africa to rising sea levels in Asia and economic instability worldwide. Protecting it is not just a regional responsibility, but a global moral imperative.
World Vision recently introduced the Hungry Futures Index, a new global benchmark analysing 84 national climate plans to determine how countries are responding to the rising threat of hunger in a warming world. The results reveal a significant gap between stated climate ambitions and the needs of the most vulnerable. References to child hunger are rare, and concrete commitments to address nutrition impacts remain limited.
The organisation is urging governments to strengthen the child dimension of their Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans. Aligning national policies with the UN’s General Comment No. 26 would help ensure that every child’s right to a safe, healthy and sustainable environment is fully recognised in the global climate agenda.
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For media interviews contact: Karla Harvey, Sr Advisor of Impact Comms & External Engagement Email: karla.harvey@wvi.org