As the humanity is set to observe this year’s World Environment Day, we stand at the crossroads – what the UN General Assembly calls the ‘Decade of action and delivery for sustainable development’. Correspondingly, the human population is experiencing a global inertia to act on environmental challenges. This is more so as the climate change is increasingly demonstrating a stark reality. Global calls are steadily getting louder in support of local initiatives at community level, which are critical in implementing and realising the SDGs (sustainable development goals).
Challenges Ahead
It is widely reckoned that climate change poses numerous challenges, including rising temperatures, extreme weather events, ocean-level rise, and immense loss of biodiversity. These challenges surely carry significant implications on human health, food security, water resources, and global and local ecosystems. Moreover, vulnerable communities, including those in South Asia, often bear the brunt of these impacts, therefore further exacerbating social vulnerabilities and inequalities.
Children & Adolescents viz. Climate Change
Climate change, undisputedly, is one of the most pressing challenges of our time which has far reaching and dire consequences for the planet, especially the future generations. While the impacts of climate change are already being felt globally, it is indeed crucial to recognise the role that children and adolescents can play in addressing this crisis. In addition to being among the most vulnerable to its effects, children and adolescents can also be catalytic change-agents, thus proactive participants in the climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts.
Well recognised that children and adolescents are adversely impacted by climate change. They face risks to their physical and mental health due to increased heat-waves, air pollution, and the spread of vector-borne diseases. Unwarranted disruptions in education and displacement caused by climate-related disasters also jeopardise their otherwise sustained access to quality education and relatively stable living conditions. Furthermore, climate change threatens their future by compromising the sustainability and habitability of the planet.
While children are often viewed as passive recipients of climate change impacts, they possess unique qualities that enable them to contribute meaningfully to climate action. Children are innovative, creative, and passionate about creating a better future. Engaging them as active participants can foster environmental consciousness, empower them as agents of change, and help build a sustainable future.
Addressing the Role of Children & Adolescents – Climate Actions
Awareness through Education – Children can play a significant role in raising awareness about climate change. Through integration of climate education into the respective school curricula or through non-formal and extra co-curricular component, children can develop a deeper understanding of the issue and its associated impacts. They can also serve as the vehicles to communicate this acquired knowledge with their peers, families and communities, encouraging sustainable practices and fostering a culture of environmental responsibility.
Civil Society Advocacy and Youth-Led Movements – Children have, time and again, demonstrated their inherent capacity in mobilising and demanding climate action. Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future movement is a case in point of how youth-led activism can drive public discourse and influence policy decisions. By joining existing youth movements or initiating their own, children can amplify their voices, demanding stronger climate policies and holding governments, corporations and communities accountable for their actions.
Healthy & Sustainable Choices (Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) – Children can actively participate in sustainable lifestyle choices by adopting environmentally friendly behaviours. They can encourage their families to reduce energy consumption, practice waste reduction and recycling, and make conscious decisions about transportation and food choices. Simply through leading by example, children can influence their immediate environments and inspire others to follow suit.
Innovations – Young people possess unique perspectives and uninhibited creativity that can contribute to finding innovative solutions to climate challenges. Through participatory platforms, such as design competitions, children can collaborate with experts, scientists, and engineers to develop technological, social, and behavioural solutions for mitigating and adapting to climate change
Strategic partnerships – Children’s engagement with climate action can be heightened through partnerships with governments, NGOs, and educational institutions. Governments can establish platforms for children’s meaningful participation, provide them with a voice in decision-making processes, and integrate their perspectives into climate policies and strategies. Collaboration with organisations working on climate issues can provide children with mentorship, resources, and opportunities to contribute more effectively.
Walking the ‘Climate Action’ Path
Involving children as active participants in addressing climate change challenges is crucial for a sustainable future. By providing them with education, platforms for advocacy, and opportunities for innovation, we empower them to become agents of change. Children’s proactive participation not only benefits climate change initiatives but also heightens their sense of agency, responsibility, and stewardship towards the environment. Recognizing and nurturing their potential as climate champions is a significant step towards building a resilient and sustainable future. Engaging children in climate change efforts can empower them, raise awareness, promote sustainable behaviors, and drive innovative solutions.
High-Powered Committee, Possible?
Strategic engagement with children and adolescents on climate issues cannot be left only as the priority of the departments of education, environment and earth sciences. For a multifaceted climate action, a multi-sectoral ‘high-powered committee on young people for climate action’ needs to be formed that could comprise senior leaders from the departments of women & child, sports & youth affairs, science & technology, and health & family welfare, which is in addition to the ministries of education, environment, and earth sciences.
With barely less than a decade left with us to meet the greenhouse gas emission targets, scientists are predicting that more plastic than fish will be in the ocean by 2050. In addition, the alarming rates of biodiversity loss are necessitating immediate changes in our lifestyles. Humanity is confronted with an unfortunate mismatch between the acknowledgment of environmental challenges and the actual change processes to mitigate these challenges. And such immediate changes are only possible when elicited by disruptive forces that wide open the doors of opportunity for an impactful positive change. Such a disruptive force manifests in many ways, such as natural disasters, dynamics in global leadership or diseases as we are currently experiencing with the COVID-19 pandemic. As a natural consequence people have to sharply adapt their way of life, and overcome habits, form a refreshed set of social norms and changed behaviours on a large scale.
