Time for action: The need for children and young people in climate decision-making

Children and young people are essential voices and forces for change in public health, yet they are not included in climate discussions and decision-making. In today’s post, public health researchers from Deakin University’s Institute for Health Transformation (@IHT_Deakin) Grace Arnot (@GraceArnot), Dr Hannah Pitt (@HannahLPitt) and Dr Simone McCarthy (@SimoneNicoleM) highlight the important knowledge and experience that children and young people have, and call for their greater inclusion in climate decision-making and public health governance.

Why should children and young people participate in climate decisions?

Children will carry the burden of the climate crisis, yet their voices are largely missing from policy discussions. Photo credit: Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

The climate crisis is considered the most urgent and complex public health threat of the modern age, with Earth’s global average temperatures continuing to soar. The disproportionate impact on children and young people is an issue of intergenerational justice, particularly given that they have no power to influence climate decision-making. This is despite charters that establish the legal grounds for their participation in climate decision making – including Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Children and young people are knowledgeable about the climate crisis

Children and young people clearly understand the risks of the climate crisis and its drivers. This includes to the health of planet and people, and the need for structural change to address current consumptogenic systems. Children and young people are able to critically discuss the political and commercial determinants of the climate crisis and the symbiotic relationship that the two powerful interests share, specifically that the fossil fuel industry is the main emitter of carbon emissions driving the climate crisis, and are enabled by the climate policies and decision-making of political actors. As such, children and young people have called for stronger legislation and greater regulation to urgently transition energy infrastructure to renewable sources.

Experienced, resilient and creative advocates

Children and young people have also demonstrated their ability to influence public health policy through engagement in past advocacy initiatives in tobacco and ultra-processed foods. Their engagement in the climate justice movement has further highlighted a range of attributes that can help to create policy change, including their awareness and knowledge of current issues, their energy and resilience to propel movements for change, as well as their power to rapidly mobilise for collective action. This is also a testament to their creative and strategic thinking pertaining to their use of social media, which children and young people have used as a mechanism to reach, engage, and share climate communications with communities around the globe.

The limited policy influence of current youth advocacy mechanisms

Social media has also helped to facilitate and grow advocacy efforts by prominent young climate advocates such as Greta Thunberg, and protest movements including School Strike 4 Climate and Fridays for Future. Along with social media, climate justice protests are the most publicly visible advocacy mechanism for the climate movement. However, despite their benefits (including for community building, information sharing, and raising awareness) children and young people understand that protests do not have structural power to directly influence policy.

As with other public health issues such as gambling, children and young people know that legislative and regulatory action on the climate crisis is a key part of a comprehensive response. For example, in Australia, Anjali Sharma’s ‘Duty of Care’ campaign supports a bill which would place a statutory duty on governments to consider the impact of their decision-making on the climate and subsequent health of planet and people, with the wellbeing of current and future children being “the paramount consideration”. As such, children and young people have called for their engagement in such a way that affords them power over decision-making.

What needs to change?

It seems as though we, as adults, are being shown by the very children and young people that we should be protecting the futures of, how to act in our role as guardians. While children and young people continue to strategise and organise to make their voices heard about the climate crisis, including about solutions and the need to act with urgency, policy change stagnates as adults with power fail to act in meaningful ways. There is increasing sentiment, including among the public health community, that children and young people must be involved in the decisions that are made about their futures. This includes the development of initiatives to implement recommendations to involve them in all policies, including about the climate crisis.

Children and young people have described wanting to engage via a range of strategies and mechanisms, including lower-level engagement such as signing petitions or sharing social media posts, middle-level engagement such as sharing their views with intermediary groups such as climate youth organisations (such as the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and Seed Mob) who share these views with stakeholders and governments, and high-level engagement that involves youth representation to embed their perspectives in all stages of the policy making process.

What can the public health community do?

As public health researchers, we are interested in what we can do to elevate the perspectives and influence of children and young people on policy matters. Here, this includes the role that the public health community can play in engaging children and young people to investigate their climate perspectives and knowledge about the climate crisis, and their preferences for engaging in climate advocacy and decision-making. A better understanding of these factors can help inform policy and practice pertaining to their civic and political participation, as well as initiatives to educate and equip children and young people to empower themselves to action.

Barriers to children and young people’s engagement aren’t limited to perceptions about their abilities, but also include a range of structural factors including school, caregiving, disabilities, finances, and not living near urban centres where events such as protests are typically held. Understanding and addressing these factors requires active outreach and collaboration with children and young people at a population-level, not just with those who are already engaged and are able to participate in the climate justice movement.

To our colleagues in the public health community, we must take greater responsibility for platforming children and young people in discussions about the climate crisis and global health governance, particularly with the rise of social media providing a valuable facilitator to participation for communities around the globe.

It’s time to stop stalling

It is clear that children and young people have the right to participate in decisions made about their futures, including the climate crisis, and their knowledge, experience, resilience and creativity make them valuable advocates for urgent and effective climate action. We must use our power and influence to collaborate, elevate, and work with children and young people to ensure that their perspectives are embedded in climate discussions and decision-making.

Co-author Hannah Pitt currently holds a VicHealth Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, examining how to facilitate the voices of young people in local government health advocacy. Her views may not reflect the position of VicHealth.  

 Posted by Susan Maury (@SusanMaury)