The study reviews the implications of climate change for children and future generations, drawing on relevant experiences in different sectors and countries of promoting child rights and well-being. It traces in considerable detail the pathways through which shifts in temperature and precipitation patterns create serious additional barriers to the achievement of the child survival, development and protection goals embraced by the international community. The role of children as vital participants and agents of change emerges as a key theme.
The strong institutional basis for inclusion of children’s issues in the international climate regime has yet to align with an emerging mechanism for championing children’s issues in the sector. For example, National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) and other adaptation plans rarely, if ever, reference the unique vulnerabilities of children or address their needs. Similarly, they fail to draw on the practical knowledge, insights and capacity for meaningful change that children can and do offer, most notably at subnational and community levels.
This paper seeks to substantiate the need for frameworks and protocols that will recognise, protect and empower children and young people in light of the effects of climate change. Thus, the major messages of this paper are that:
- a human rights-based approach necessitates inclusion of children’s issues in all international and national efforts, most notably the climate change regime following the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, NAPAs and poverty reduction strategies;
- there is an increasingly convincing body of evidence that many of the main killers of children (malaria, diarrhoea and undernutrition) are highly sensitive to climatic conditions;
- the complexity of the challenges posed by the changing global environment calls for an integrated approach. The challenges of providing access to clean household energy, water, sanitation and education, are compounded by the increasing and chronic prevalence and severity of natural disasters, and are often simultaneous;
- intersectoral coordination and collaboration between line ministries (including education, health, environment, youth and finance) are essential for paying special attention to the needs and vulnerabilities of children of different ages;
- scaling up efforts to meet the MDGs will reduce risk caused by many of the social and economic factors that are shown to exacerbate and increase the impacts of climate change, thereby increasing the resilience of the most vulnerable children;
- gender-sensitive participatory approaches to community development, including water and energy stewardship, environmental education, food security and disaster risk-reduction activities, will create economic opportunity, reduce vulnerability and empower the most marginalised citizens to take part in creating a sustainable society;
- empowered children are dynamic and ultimately powerful protagonists for protecting and improving the environment. Today’s children and future generations bear the brunt of the climate change impacts, but they are also great forces for change. As such, they have a right to be involved not only locally, but also in the current international negotiation process;
- partnerships are key. The wide-reaching complexity of climate change is too large for any one organisation to tackle alone. A coherent, cooperative partnership between governments, civil society, UN organisations, donors, the private sector and every individual (inclusive of and taking into account generations and genders) is needed to reduce and mitigate risk at all levels.
