Letters | Coronavirus pandemic must not drown out children’s voices on climate change

Although the pandemic has knocked climate change off the global political agenda, it remains a far greater threat to humanity. Children and youth’s futures are most at stake, and they must be heard when leaders address climate change

Climate change

Letters

Published: 8:00am, 2 Aug 2020

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The climate crisis is already a menace to countries in the Asia-Pacific battered by extreme weather events. But as much worse is to come for future generations, it is also a child rights crisis. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child enshrines children’s rights to survival. It explicitly mentions “the dangers and risks of environmental pollution”, including global heating.

But in a region that is already the world’s most disaster-prone, home to three of the biggest carbon-emitting countries and 99 of the 100 most polluted cities, such rights are being flushed into a pit of toxic waste.

These rights are undermined by every missed opportunity to rebuild the region’s currently stalled economies on cleaner, greener foundations. And our children had been making their voices heard – until Covid-19.

The global pandemic has shifted attention away from, and silenced much of the child- and youth-led buzz around the climate crisis that captured public attention last year. Our analysis of social media finds the number of online conversations about climate, which steadily rose during 2019, declined sharply in 2020 when Covid-19 emerged.

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Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg makes emotional speech at UN Climate Action Summit

But although it has been knocked off the political agenda by the pandemic, the climate crisis remains a far greater threat to humanity than Covid-19.

With their futures most at stake, children and youth must be heard and their needs integrated when world leaders address the climate emergency. Asia-Pacific governments must be at the forefront because the region is home to half the world’s population and an estimated 1.2 billion people living in poverty.

Half of Asia’s urban population live in low-lying coastal zones and flood plains, which are most at risk from rising sea levels and floods. In China’s coastal areas, for example, 23 million people are at risk from a one-metre rise in sea level.

China’s version of Greta Thunberg pays price for climate activism

Studies show that epidemics caused by viruses of animal origin are becoming more frequent, largely because of human activities like deforestation, illegal wildlife trade, pollution and the meat industry, all of which force animals and insects into contact with humans. Climate change is aggravating such disruptions, and children from poor and marginalised communities will continue to bear the worst impacts.

We need an all-of-society approach. Implementing the right technical measures like improving energy efficiency is important, but first we need to focus on empowerment and inclusion. That means giving children and youth the tools and platforms they need to bring about lasting change.

Our children tried to warn us, but we didn’t listen. And now we are paying the price.

Niall O’Connor, Asia director, Stockholm Environment Institute, and Hassan Noor, Asia regional director, Save the Children

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