Climate action refers to a family of collective efforts intended to mitigate and adapt to climate change. For example, climate actions can include reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, restoring and conserving ecosystems, and creating climate-resilient infrastructure, water, and agricultural systems. They also include supportive actions that enable these actions such as policy, legislative, and regulatory support; climate finance; and education, advocacy, and capacity building.
At the global level, climate action is represented by Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 iv and all countries have agreed to limit global temperature rise to well below 2°C pre-industrial levels through the Paris Agreement. To this end, countries are submitting climate action plans know as nationally determined contributions (NDCs).v However, ESCAP estimates that the emission reductions entailed by the existing NDCs would still lead the world on the path to warming between 3.5 to 4°C. Therefore, there is an urgent need to raise climate action ambitions across the region, and youth can play a key role in that.
Despite being a global emergency, climate action is particularly urgent in Asia and the Pacific as the region is the most disaster-prone and is home to some of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. Over the past 60 years, temperatures in the region have risen faster than the global mean and extreme weather events have become more frequent and intense, leading to otherwise avoidable losses of life and economic damages in the region amounting to well over 700 billion UnitedStatesdollarsannuallyandrising.vi Atthe same time, the region produces over half of the world’s total GHG emissions, which are the primary driver of anthropogenic climate change. However, it is often the countries and communities that have contributed the least towards climate change that feel the worst of its impacts, raising the issue of climate justice.
Climate justice is also highly relevant in the context of children and youth. Young people did not cause the climate crisis yet, as a vulnerable group, they must bear its consequences: both today and well into their futures. Already, the negative consequences of climate change are impacting the education, employment, and socio- economic well-being of young people.vii Meanwhile, Action for Climate Empowerment, or ACE, provides an important framework for climate action that prepares individuals (including youth), governments, and society at large to engage in climate action through six elements: education, training, public awareness, public access to information, public participation, and international cooperation.
To put the issue of young people and climate change into more perspective, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has found that almost every child on Earth is exposed to at least one major climate and environmental hazard, with almost 1 billion children living in extremely high-risk countries globally.viii For instance, six months after unprecedented floods ravaged Pakistan in 2022, around 9.6 million children were still in need of humanitarian assistance.ix Unfortunately, impacts are only set to become more severe and people aged 10 or under will experience a four-fold increase in extreme weather events under the optimistic scenario of 1.5°C of global warming and a five-fold increase under a 3°C scenario by 2100.x Thus, the climate crisis is a crisis of the rights of children and youth, and young people have also highlighted the importance of taking a human rights-based, participatory, and inclusive approach to climate change policies.xi Already, a global basis for addressing climate change, engaging youth, and upholding the rights of young people can be found in numerous commitments and guiding plans that include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement, the Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan, the Glascow Climate Pact, the United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/76/L.75,xii the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the World Programme of Action for Youth to name a few.
Since young people are disproportionately impacted by climate change, they are entitled to play a more active role in the actions that will shape their futures. However, this premise aside, youth also bring unique qualities that make them valuable assets. Climate action demands innovation and new approaches, and youth are in a distinct position to contribute as their relative energy, creativity, passion,optimism, and digital literacy are forces for forward-moving action, and youth are also more likely to view climate change as an urgent issue.
Furthermore, their numerical significance can amplify their impact. Over half of global youth are from Asia and the Pacific, and children and youth number around 1.7 billion people in the region. However, as the fastest ageing region, xiii Asia and the Pacific would do well to cash in on these benefits while they are at their most plentiful. It is also in the long-term interest of society to meaningfully engage young people in the important issues of today since it better prepares them to tackle these challenges tomorrow and can foster greater trust in public institutions.