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Putting Children and Future Generations at the Heart of Climate Change and Human Security
Emily Polack – 25 June 2009
For the first time academics and practitioners working on child rights, climate change and human security have come together to discuss how to get the rights of children and future generations into responses to climate change. Children in a Changing Climate, coordinated by IDS, created the space for this exchange through a panel session and roundtable discussion on Rights of Children and Future Generations at the Global Environmental Change and Human Security Synthesis Conference held in Oslo on 23 June 2009.
The event put children at the heart of climate change and human security debates, helping to highlight the use of child rights frameworks to drive the development of responses to climate change. A near-universal treaty (the Convention on the Rights of the Child) states that policies must be made in the best interests of the child. This includes adaptation policy and demands effective mitigation for safer futures. The ‘how’ of making certain interests visible in multiple policy arenas remains a challenge. This debate is particularly important in the context of the international climate change negotiations leading up to the Copenhagen meeting at the end of the year, and the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) beyond this.
Dr. Tom Tanner from IDS chaired and presented research on child-led community-based responses to climate change in vulnerable communities in El Salvador and the Philippines. The research demonstrates that children’s participation should be supported in multiple modes, including children as:
- constructors of social networks and capital,
- mobilisers of resources and action'
- advocates for change'
- communicators of risks and risk management,
- analysers of risk and risk reduction activities,
- designers and implementers of projects.
Gulzad Kokoeva from the Free University of Brussels presented research findings on perceptions and knowledge of climate change amongst inhabitants of Poznan, Poland, differentiating between sex and age.
Emily Polack from IDS, explored modes of influencing national adaptation policy processes and programme formulation for stronger recognition of children, children’s roles and children’s needs. This research is investigating the potential for linking the work on community-based and child-centred adaptation with climate justice debates at the global level to establish equity and rights perspectives in national policy making.
Lucy Stone from UNICEF UK discussed the notion of Intergenerational Justice as a necessary progression from recognising the existing child rights frameworks, and the impacts the climate change may have on children’s rights. She argued that we are already thinking about ‘intergenerationality’ through debating long-term impacts and targets, but it is not informing our actions.
The roundtable session generated a set of areas for future work, including around:
- Stimulating multiple forms of child participation in climate change and disaster activities
- Defining and operationalising intergenerational equity, particularly in the context of the UN Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC)
- The role of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in responding to climate change
- Developing recognition of the rights of children and child-centred approaches within the IPCC?
These areas will be taken on in the future work of the Children in a Changing Climate programme.
Emily Polack is a Research Officer in the Climate Change and Development Centre at IDS
Image: Chris Stowers/ Panos
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Related Projects
- Children in a Changing Climate - IDS is working with leading research and development organisations to secure children and your people a voice in preventing and adapting to climate change – from their communities to the UN. (2008 - 2010)
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