The voice of the young in a climate emergency - Changing the narrative from children as helpless victims to active agents of change

The voice of the young in a climate

emergency

Changing the narrative from children as helpless victims to

active agents of change

Linn Lindström Leister

Human Rights Bachelor Thesis 15 credits

Spring semester 2020

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Abstract

This thesis aims to examine the role of children as agents of change in an urgent climate context. This thesis uses a normative method with an argumentative structure. The material is mainly based on secondary sources, with predominantly emphasis on the interests, concerns and rights of the child, their agency and intergenerational justice. This thesis argues for a shift in the perception of the child from helpless victims of climate change to active agents. With the use of intergenerational justice theory and children’s agency into the discourse of

childhood studies and environmental studies, this thesis suggests that a updated perception on the role of children in the climate change context is needed to account for children’s right to participation and for the survival of the environment and the future of mankind. The thesis concludes that this issue is a matter of rights, future life, and justice.

Key words: Children’s rights, Climate change, Agency, Vulnerability, Justice Wordcount: 12 714

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Table of content

1.3 Theory and Method ... 7

1.4 Relevance to Human Rights ... 7

1.5 Delimitations ... 9

2. Background ... 9

2.1 Climate change and global warming ... 9

2.2 A child-centered approach ... 11

2.3 The Convention on the Rights of the Child ... 12

3. Theoretical framework ... 13

3.1 Childhood agency ... 13

3.2 Intergenerational justice ... 14

3.3 Vulnerability ... 15

3.4 Resistance and Activism ... 15

4. Method and Material ... 16

4.1 Material ... 17

5. Analysis ... 17

5.1 CRC and Article 12 ... 18

5.2 Children’s agency in the context of climate change ... 19

5.3 Children and intergenerational justice ... 23

5.4 Children as helpless victims ... 24

5.5 Children as active agents of change ... 26

5.5.1 Children in adaptation strategies ... 28

5.5.2 Children in activism and resistance ... 29

6. Conclusion ... 31

6.1 The relevance of this conclusion ... 32

6.2 Further research ... 33

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1. Introduction

Climate change threatens the effective enjoyment of a range of human rights, including those to life, water and sanitation, food, health, housing, self-determination, culture, and

development. States have a human rights obligation to prevent the imminent harmful effects of climate change and ensure that those affected by it, particularly those in vulnerable

situations, have access to effective remedies and means of adaptation to enjoy lives of human dignity. (OHCHR, 2020) It has been widely recognized that children and young people are disproportionately affected by changes in their environment, due to their unique metabolism, physiology, and developmental needs. Changes in temperature, air and water quality and nutrition are likely to have more severe and long-term impacts on children’s health, development, and well-being. Because of their less developed physiology and immune systems, young children will experience most intensely the effects of climate change-related stresses. (OHCHR, 2017) Acknowledging this fact, and realizing the threats facing all life on the Earth and especially the lives, livelihoods and futures of current children, there has been a rise in awareness, resistance, and protests for the environment.

Young climate activists have been raising their voice and protesting the streets for the environment and to push the State governments to deal with the urgent threat of climate change. Climate activism movements have been spread all over the world and they speak inclusively not only for their own lives and futures, but also for those not yet born, for endangered species and for fragile ecosystems. The voices of children and young have echoed with great enthusiasm and power for the sake of the planet and to put pressure on State governments to deal with the issue. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is designed to protect children both in times of normality and in disasters. The basic premise of the CRC is that children like all human beings, are born with fundamental freedoms and the inherent human rights. The Convention is often discussed in terms of its main principles: non-discrimination (Article 2); best interests of the child (Article 3); survival and

development (Article 6); and child participation (Article 12).

The Preamble emphasizes that all rights of the CRC are of equal significance. Several of the articles are particularly relevant to a changing climate. The resistance of children in relation to the climate emergency suggests that children possess knowledge, engagement, and power to act on environmental issues. The environmental resistance is very inclusive and gives voice to poor people, endangered species, and future generations. A key aspect of this resistance is the temporal aspect of the issue. It is not possible for children to escape in order to solve the problem of the climate emergency. In order to challenge the

5 dominant system, children’s abstract progressive resistance shows, first, that although

children do not get recognition for their knowledge and power democratically, they can influence the political agenda and receive support and acceptance for their views also on major structural and global problems. (Holmberg & Alvinius, 2019) This research attempts to show that children and young adults can express major resistance, hold political agency and act as active agents of change in the context of climate emergency. Furthermore, this research is concerned with a series of questions relating to children’s agency in the climate change context. It allows for thinking through children’s and young people’s capacities to make a difference and the different ways in which children and young people have been and are actively involved in developing, groundbreaking, and substantive shapes of solidarity and coexistence.

1.1 Previous research

Most often, the link between children, climate change and disasters have focused on two main narratives: vulnerability and protection. Vulnerability has been explored using statistics that focus on the specific vulnerability of children as an aggregate social group. Many studies focus on the high mortality and morbidity rates among children due to climate stresses and extreme weather events. There are a set of possible explanations for the dominance of these vulnerability narratives. They remain important advocacy instruments to call attention to and direct resources towards more specific needs of children and emphasizes the injustice of impacts felt by those who lack voice in determining their causes. It, furthermore, reflects the continued dominance of top-down information flow on climate and disaster information, with scientific institutions at the top and the public at the bottom. The third possible explanation relates to paternalism, and the commonly held idea that the notion that parents have the capacity, responsibility, will and free reign to make choice about these risks, without questioning the rights and agency of the child to make a difference. (Tanner, 2010, p.340) The issues are bound up in an increasing set of literature concerning participation of the child in development processes, especially in a context of developing countries.

Furthermore, it seems as there is a lacking research in children’s relation to global issues. When it comes to climate change resistance, the main emphasis has been on adults, whereas children’s political agency is largely ignored in mainstream international relations, political science, and sociology. (Holmberg & Alvinius, 2019, p.79) Children’s agency and protest in relation to major social structural change remain undetected, possibly due to the more general understanding of children as lacking political agency. (Bridger, 2016;

6 Garlen, 2019) Thus, from the perspective of both political science and sociology, emphasis on children’s political agency and resistance is necessary, and contributing to the insufficient field of research. In relation to the climate emergency, children’s resistance is a legitimate expression of their autonomy, demanding political and social change now and in the future. Through analyzing resistance and activism related to the climate and children, the research can contribute theoretically to environmental politics, children’s agency and raise awareness of the best interests of the society.

Previous research indicates that children’s agency and resistance seem to have been neglected and reduced in social science and in the political world. (Garlen, 2019) Despite children’s ability for agency, the political interest of children has been considered low. Nevertheless, in recent years, the voices of children have been recognized in diverse contexts all over the world. If children’s resistance and agency is recognized, it becomes possible to theorize their tactics of protest in relation to institutional structures, a protest that might become political. (Holmberg & Alvinius 2019, p.81) When it comes to environmental concern and activism, research shows that climate issues have gained the attention of

children. (Ceplak, 2006; Green, 2017) The overall picture of children’s resistance and activism shows that it may take several shapes and be directed at various social and political arenas and practices. Many studies have been conducted from an individual perspective in a local environment such as school and family. However, very little attention has been directed to structural, global issues such as the climate emergency and the issue of the future and upcoming generations in relation to this. (Holmberg & Alvinius 2019)

1.2 Aim

The aim of this research is to explore the essence of children’s agency in relation to the climate emergency. This thesis argues and demonstrates that the understanding of children’s role as helpless victims are and need to be transformed into active agents of change, with appropriate response and respect. The ultimate aim is to contribute to changing the narrative and understanding of children and youths from vulnerability to agency with a specific focus on young climate activism and also with examples of children’s role in adaptation strategies and work. The research is intended as an exploration and argumentation of children’s agency and the importance of it in a more urgent and threatening context of climate change and global warming.

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1.2.1 Research question

- Why is it important to regard children and youths as active participants and agents in the context of climate change?

1.2.2 Sub-Question

- In what ways can children hold vital and meaningful roles in combating climate change and contribute to climate change adaptation?

1.3 Theory and Method

There are four theories that have been used in this paper, along with several concepts. The first theory is childhood agency which focus on the role of children and their agency in the context of climate change. The second theory presented is intergenerational justice, which focus on the importance of distributive justice among and within generations. The third theory is focusing on vulnerability. The fourth theory is resistance and activism and will focus on children’s role within it, in a context of climate emergency. These theories can either be applied separately or together since they are all interconnected to each other. The typology presented supports critical reflection on the effectiveness of youth activism and the role of children as active agents.

The method that will be used is normative with an argumentative structure.

1.4 Relevance to Human Rights

That environmental degradation has impacts on existing human rights is now widely acknowledged. Some International Human Rights treaties explicitly address the linkages between the protection of the environment and the enjoyment of human rights, for example, the CRC recognizes that the enjoyment of human rights depends, inter alia, on a decent environment. (Limon, 2009, p.470) Climate change poses a serious threat to some of human’s most basic interests. (Bell, 2011, p.99) The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2019) states with very high confidence that climate change will increase the number of deaths, injuries, illness, and malnutrition. The IPCC is also confident about the man-made causes of climate change. (Bell, 2011, p.100) Human actions that involve the emission of greenhouse gases threaten basic human interests. This has led some philosophers and activists to argue that one should perceive climate change as a human rights issue, where there is a violation of human rights by emitting greenhouse gases. Climate change poses a direct threat to a wide range of universally recognized fundamental rights, such as the rights to life, food,

8 adequate housing, health, and water. (United Nations, 2007) Scholars have argued that there is a human right to ‘physical security’ and that this right is threatened by man-made climate change. (Bell, 2011, p.101)

The emergence of climate change and global warming disrupts that order. Climate change will have immense consequences on the human life and all inhabiting the Earth. In March, 2008, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted Resolution 7/23 on Human Rights and Climate Change, which, for the first time in a UN Resolution,

explicitly recognized that climate change “has implications for the full enjoyment of human rights” (UN 2008). This concern is backed up by the early words of Mary Robinson (2006); “Climate change has already begun to affect the fulfillment of human rights, and our shared human rights framework entitles and empowers developing countries and impoverished communities to claim protection of these rights” (Limon, 2009, p.441). The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Report asserts that global warming “will potentially have implications for the full range of human rights” but that certain rights are most directly implicated by climate change-related impacts. (Limon, 2009, p.446) The impacts of these rights are not only more and less affected by the context of geographical vulnerability, but it is also a matter of generational vulnerability. Climate change serves to exacerbate existing vulnerabilities, where the rights of groups such as children are

disproportionately threatened. (Limon, 2009, p.447) This raises question about equality and non-discrimination, among many other.

With human rights threatened by climate change and its serious and wide-ranging human rights implications, it is obvious that the international community is duty-bound to respond. However, the international community is already responding and have been doing so for years, but it seems to be insufficient and ineffective. Despite over decades of international advocacy on climate change, the world seems to be no closer to a workable solution today than it was in 1998, when the Maldives first issued warning about climate change to the UN General Assembly. (Limon, 2009, p.449) When precious time has been wasted and the current system of international efforts to help the environment seems to be insufficient, a new generation has been given a climate issue that is deeper and more complex. And this has also been the cause for action by many of the raising demonstrations to save the environment and the future of current children and young adults. This has been the ground of frustration and the cause for motivation to speak up and protest the inaction and actions of States ignoring the threat of climate change and global warming.

9 climate change more directly onto individuals and the impacts of climate change on their lives. Furthermore, using a human rights framework might help amplify the voices of those who are disproportionately affected by climate change, including the group of children, who might otherwise not be heard and who, if empowered to do so, could make an important contribution to improving climate change policy. (Limon, 2009, p.450-451) Furthermore, children’s rights are human rights. Article 3 of the CRC is concerned with the best interest of the child and for a long time and up till today, through the inaction and action on climate change, State parties have failed to meet their obligation to fulfill this article. One area where all States might find common ground is around children, and urgent action is needed to respect and protect the child’s best interests and claim to intergenerational climate justice. (Gibbons, 2014, p.27) Furthermore, if global warming continues at the extended pace, evidence suggests that children of future generations will not realize their rights under the CRC.

1.5 Delimitations

The delimitations of this thesis extend to the reliance on secondary sources. Some scholars have argued that the only “real” form of studies concerning children and childhood is (qualitative) research with children. This is a limitation to the thesis, which is not conducted in that manner. The thesis did not have access to primary sources, such as interviews and observations with children or young people concerning the issue. However, this is a suggestion for further research. Furthermore, the gender aspect of children and climate change is an increasing concern within academia but have not been focused on in this paper.

2. Background

2.1 Climate change and global warming

Global warming is the long-term heating of Earth’s climate system observed since the pre-industrial period due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere. The term global warming is frequently used interchangeably with the term climate change, though the latter refers to both manmade and naturally produced warming and the effects it has on our planet. Since the pre-industrial period, human activities are estimated to have increased Earth’s global average temperature by about 1 degree Celsius, a number that is currently increasing by 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade. The majority of the present warming trend is extremely likely the outcome of human activity since the 1950s and is proceeding at an unprecedented rate over decades to millennia.

10 (NASA, 2020)

Furthermore, climate change is a long-term change in the average weather patterns that have come to define Earth’s local, regional and global climates. These changes have a broad range of observed effects that are synonymous with the term. Observed changes in the Earth’s climate since the early 20th century is primarily driven by human activities, particularly fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere and raising Earth’s average surface temperature. These human-produced temperature increases are commonly referred to as global warming. Scientists use

observations from the ground, air and space, along with theoretical models, to monitor and study past, present and future climate change. Furthermore, climate data records provide evidence of climate change key indicators, such as global land and ocean temperature increases; rising sea levels; ice loss at Earth’s poles and in mountain glaciers; frequency and severity changes in extreme weather such as hurricanes, heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, floods and precipitation; and cloud and vegetation cover changes, to name only a few. (NASA, 2020)

The Earth’s future climate depends on actions that is taken as a global society. The science underlying climate change is clear. Human emissions of greenhouse gases are causing the average temperature of the climate to rise. Climate change and its major human source, the burning of fossil fuels, have already inflicted disproportionate suffering on children and are seriously endangering their future health and well-being. Until recently, the effects of climate change and fossil fuel emissions have not been jointly considered, resulting in a piecemeal and fractured accounting of the risks to children, and therefore an

underestimate of both urgency and the benefits of taking action. A fuller accounting is needed, and this accounting must address the major issues of inequity: the disproportionate burden of the young; growing regional and socio-economic disparities in climate change impacts; and the escalating threat to future generations. (UNICEF, 2014, p.15)

There is no longer a legitimate scientific debate over whether human-induced climate change is real. Since 2009, it has been acknowledged as the greatest global health threat of the twenty-first century. (UNICEF, 2014, p.17) For the strategies concerning climate change to be effective and sufficient, prevention and adaptation strategies must be centered around the needs of children. (UNICEF, 2014, p.17) Other current and future impacts on children other than health and unsustainability, include social and political instability from forced migration and population displacement. (UNICEF, 2014, p.20) The right of children and future generations to a sustainable future has been internationally recognized. The World

11 Commission on Environment and Development, also known as the Brundtland Commission of the United Nations published a report in 1987, Our Common Future. The report contained prescriptions for long-term environmental strategies to achieve sustainable development that met the essential needs of the world’ poorest people while ensuring intergenerational equity.

Previous literature show that it is certain that children will be among those most affected by climate change and are the most vulnerable to the consequences that come with a changing climate. Key changes also seem pretty agreed upon in previous literature

concerning children and climate change. At least they are similar regarding focus,

accountability and increasing the effectiveness. Key changes will include: putting a stronger emphasis on stakeholder engagement; taking a systems-based approach when considering whether to modify current interventions or implement new ones; developing interventions based on models of future vulnerabilities and impacts; and ensuring a strong and explicit focus on managing risks. (UNICEF, 2014, p.25) The common and strongest emphasis is on the need for urgent action. Since, without urgent action, climate change will escalate in the negative consequences for child development, needlessly affecting both current generations and the ones to come.

2.2 A child-centered approach

A child centered approach to adaptation and prevention targets activities that help to reduce the vulnerability of children to climate change. Child-centered approaches to adaptation fall into two categories. The first category are programs that focus specifically on children’s needs, referred to as ‘child-targeted policy and programming’, and the second category are programs that involve children in the design and delivery, referred to as ‘child-led’

adaptation. (UNICEF, 2014, p.33) A suitable response to the threat of climate change call for a greater investment in a child-centered approach to adaptation. Here the focus is on

adaptation, and not mitigation of emissions, since children are on the front line of

vulnerability to climate change, and hence adaptations is key to protecting their livelihoods and lives. Where children are proactively involved in adaptation and disaster risk reduction activities, they carry that knowledge and learning with them for life and since they are young, they will benefit from this over a longer time period than an older counterpart. (UNICEF, 2014, p.34)

Furthermore, despite the significant implications of climate change for children, assistance has unfortunately not targeted them on a scale that matches the issue. (UNICEF, 2014, p.35) Previous research show that there are several potential beneficial outcomes of

12 child-focused and child-led activities in participation, which could lead to increased

credibility with adults, improved status of children within the community and an increased sense of belonging and doing something good for the community. Broad public participation has also been claimed to be a prerequisite for achieving sustainable development and

combating climate change. (UNICEF, 2014, p.62) The right to participation of the child is one of the basic principles of the CRC. The notion of children’s participation has two

components. The first is the right of the child to be heard, which imposes an obligation on the State to hear children in all decisions concerning them, including climate change policies, law, and activities. (UNICEF, 2014, p.62) The second is the right to participate, which corresponds to the belief of the child as an active agent in his/her life, family, and

community. Children and young adults are recognized as those with the strongest interest in environmental matters, and thus their participation in mitigating climate change and

adaptations need to be ensured.

2.3 The Convention on the Rights of the Child

Children are, as mentioned throughout the paper, particularly affected by climate change. In addition to this vulnerable position, children are also least responsible for historic carbon emissions, which calls the dimension of intergenerational justice into question. Yet children are rarely visible in national or international adaptation debates, both in terms of recognizing their rights, needs and capabilities and in terms of their physical participation. However, when children are featured in adaptation strategy documents and activities concerning climate, it is linked to their vulnerability rather than their agency. (Polack, 2010, p.10)

This research will focus mainly on Article 12 from the CRC; the right of the child to participate. Children have a right to be heard in all matters affecting them. This applies to all responses to climate change. Participatory rights are echoed throughout climate change adaptation literature which emphasizes the inherently local nature of autonomous adaptation (IPCC 2001), the need for strong local formal and informal institutions, and for social inclusion in externally driven interventions. One of the general principles of the CRC is the respect for the views and concerns of the child. In relevance to climate change

adaptation, children must have a voice in all responses to climate change, given the impacts of the changes are having and will continue to have on their lives and livelihoods. (Polack, 2010, p.13) Overall, children are not explicitly considered in a way which recognizes their rights, capacities, and agency.

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3. Theoretical framework

In this section the theories of the thesis will be introduced and discussed. The section will go through the four main theories: childhood agency, intergenerational justice, vulnerability, resistance and activism. By splitting them up into different factors these theories have an impact and contribute to the issue of children’s participation in the context of climate change and global warming. However, they can also be treated as a whole. Childhood agency aims to understand and to appreciate children’s active contribution to the shaping of their social worlds and to society, and to theoretically conceptualize and empirically analyze the contribution. This theory attempts to suggest and argue that a more nuanced definition of children’s agency is required. The theory of intergenerational justice calls for equality among generations and among members of a generation, with the understanding that all are entitled to a certain level of quality and access. The concept of vulnerability is defined as the risk of adverse outcomes to receptors or exposure units. The theory section of resistance and activism focuses on both concepts in the context of climate change and children. The theory of resistance and social activism are closely linked and thus will be presented and discussed together. Resistance is widely defined as opposition with a social and political purpose. (Abowitz, 2000, p.878) Social activism is a corollary for social change. Social activism is about doing, acting, mobilizing resources, and supporting leadership to bring change in society.

3.1 Childhood agency

Agency is one of the concepts of Childhood Studies (Esser et al. 2016). However, some research is lacking on the explicitly and systematically focus on this key concept. The inclusion of agency in childhood studies is associated with conflicting interests. The significance of agency as a key concept for Childhood Studies goes back to the original aspiration of this area of research: to appreciate children’s active contribution to the shaping of their social worlds and to society, and to theoretically conceptualize and empirically analyze the contribution. (Esser et al. 2016) This was explained by Allison James and Alan Prout, who formulated the following influential statement in the foreword to their 1990 publication, ‘Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood’: “Children are and must be seen as active in the construction and determination of their own social lives, the lives of those around them and of the societies in which they live. Children are not just the passive subjects of social structures and processes” (Prout & James, 1990, p. 8). This meaning was later used in a new term: “childhood agency”. This term remains well established to this day.

14 The concept of childhood and academia concerning childhood, have according to the critics, been reduced to a phase in life and a transitory state on the way to adulthood, and children’s current thinking and acting withdrawn into the background, while their

learning and preparation for adulthood has in early academia been treated as more important. (Esser et al. 2016) The new aspect of “New Childhood Studies” was the claim that

“childhood and children’s social relationships and cultures are worthy of study in their own right and not just in respect to their social construction by adults” (Prout & James, 1990, p.8). The idea was that childhood would become an independent focus of research in the social science and that children themselves would become statistical units. (Esser et al. 2016) James (2007) summed up this general aim with the concise phrase: “giving voice to children’s voices”. This insistence on taking children into account in social research, but also in social reporting, helped to establish the field of Childhood Studies in scholarship and research. The central positioning of the concept of agency in Childhood Studies was also intended as a contribution to the social emancipation of children. Children tend to go unheard and unseen, and have relatively few visible opportunities to influence society, or at least so has been the case for a long time. However, the notion still convincing today, is that the marginalized social position of children should not be attributed to the fact that they lack skills required for participation, but to their systematic exclusion from opportunities for participation and active involvement. (Esser et al. 2016) This exclusion has been and is still justified with their lack of physical and mental maturity, and they are furthermore seen as vulnerable, and excluded for their own protection.

3.2 Intergenerational justice

The theory of intergenerational justice postulates that all countries have an intergenerational obligation to all generations, including future generations, regardless of nationality, because the condition of the planet will have a profound impact on the welfare and all descendants. The theory of intergenerational justice says that humans as a species hold the natural and cultural environment of the planet Earth in common both with other members of present generation and with other generations, past and future. The theory intergenerational equity calls for equality among generations and among members of a generation, with the

understanding that all are entitled to a certain level of quality and access. (Weiss, 1990, p.9) Weiss (1990) mean that we now have the power to change our global environment

irreversibly, with profoundly damaging effects on the robustness and integrity of the planet and the heritage that we pass to future generations. To define intergenerational equity, Weiss

15 mean that it is useful to view the human community as a partnership among all generations and further that the purpose of human society must be to realize and protect the well-being and welfare of every generation. (Weiss, 1990, p.200) This requires sustaining the life-support systems of the planet, the ecological processes, and the environmental conditions necessary for a healthy and decent human environment. Weiss means that as beneficiaries of the planetary legacy, all members of the present generation are entitled to equitable access to and use of the legacy. The future nationals of all countries will benefit from efforts of the present generation to protect the general planetary environment for future generations.

Conversely, all will suffer if the present generation does not make such efforts. (Weiss, 1990, p.201)

3.3 Vulnerability

Clark et al. (2000, p.2) define “vulnerability” as the risk of adverse outcomes to receptors or exposure units in the face of relevant changes in climate, other environmental variables, and social conditions”. Furthermore, Clark et al. (2000) note that vulnerability is a

multidimensional concept encompassing (1) exposure; the degree to which a human group comes into contact with particular stresses, (2) sensitivity; the degree to which an exposure unit is impacted by exposure to any set of stresses and (3) resilience; the ability associated with the convergence of multiple stresses. Thus, vulnerability and risk are closely related. Risk is used in most definitions of vulnerability. Of the three dimensions of vulnerability identified by Clark et al. (2000), exposure and sensitivity are a reasonable definition of risk. Vulnerability simply adds to the concept of resilience. Actors tend to be conceptualized as passive victims to risks that are treated as external to society. Furthermore, Clark et al. argues that such a perspective overemphasizes extreme events while neglecting routine social

processes that influence differential vulnerability between individuals and social units. It can also lead to an excessive reliance on expert knowledge and technological solutions that sidestep the inherently political and moral questions which must be confronted in relations to vulnerability. (McLaughlin & Dietz, 2007) Some scholars have demonstrated that for

example so-called disaster victims are never simply victims, but also survivors and active agents. (McLaughlin & Dietz ,2007)

3.4 Resistance and Activism

Resistance theories, emerging in the last several decades from neo-Marxist, neo-Gramscian, postmodern, and post-structural examinations of power struggles, have raised important ideas

16 for scholars. Resistance theorists have attempted to explain why the opposition of some groups against others is politically and morally necessary in social institutions where mainstream ideologies dominate to discipline participant and social norms. Resistance, in these theoretical structures, is differentiated from mere opposition to authority. However, resistance is understood to contribute in some way to progressive transformation of the environment by attempting to undermine “the reproduction of oppressive social structures and social relations” (Walker, 1985, p.65). Resistance is widely defined as opposition with a social and political purpose. (Abowitz, 2000, p.878)

Activism is a huge concept with several dimensions and sub concepts. Since the last decades, the 20th century, a variety of non-governmental environmental organizations have been formed and have contributed to putting environmental issues on the political agenda through lobbying and activism. However, research on popular environmental

engagement is limited. Several scholars have suggested that the emergence of post-materialist values in post-industrial societies is a key aspect behind popular environmental engagement. (Kaijser & Larsson H., 2018) The concept of environmental activism refers to ‘function of specific behaviors’ that aims to fight environmental injustices of different kinds, entailing a wide array of behaviors. In political and social studies, environmental activism is often referred to as participation in or support of environmental movements. The literature on environmental activism has framed the issue in different ways, from engagement in political actions or actions that influence policy and management practices to, more specifically, petitions and donations to organizations. (Lee et al. 2019) This thesis will focus on the first formulation. Human Rights awareness reflects one’s tendency to participate in society by exercising their civil and political rights, while environmental activism has long been framed as a predominantly social and political issue. For instance, environmental activism was suggested to have emerged from actions to seek democratic participation in environmental issues and policymaking. Thus, human rights awareness will be of very high relevance in explaining the driving force behind participation in environmental activism.

4. Method and Material

This section will provide with a description about the chosen method and materials. This thesis is using a normative method with an argumentative structure. The research question addressed throughout this thesis is a normative one and aims to stress and argue for the importance of regarding children as active agents of change in the context of climate change with appropriate response and respect in the light of their rights, concerns and justice. In

17 order to answer the research question, this thesis uses an argumentative structure.

Argumentation analysis was used to analyze arguments made in previous research and to develop the arguments presented in this paper. By using the argumentative approach, the purpose of contributing to research stressing a shift in the narrative of children as victims to agents is clearly stated. Specific attention has been paid to the role of children and their agency. However, the weaknesses of the method and material used is that the main part is derived from previous research and not conducted in a qualitative manner where the views and voices of children would have been even stronger. This thesis, anyways, attempts to capture the voice and the concerns of the children.

4.1 Material

This thesis has relied on reports, documents, and previous research concerning the issue of children, young people and climate change, with a focus on agency and participation. Several reports from the UN have been used, as well as articles in newspapers. Additional material used in the thesis are articles in academic journals and books. All of the sources were useful and assisted in reaching a conclusion. Furthermore, two examples from Kenya and Cambodia will be used to demonstrate effective and beneficial aspects of led and children-adopted strategies in the setting of climate change. This material is a qualitative study with observations and interviews concerning children in the context of climate change. These examples will be analyzed through the lenses of the theoretical frameworks, under the subheading “Children in adaptation strategies”. The examples were chosen to support the arguments of the thesis.

5. Analysis

This chapter provides an analysis of the active participatory role of children in the context of climate change and why these roles are important. Furthermore, is the contrasting role of children as helpless victims demonstrated and discussed. Some reports from the UN and NGOs have been used in the analysis, as well as sources from local knowledge and observations. However, the analysis mainly discusses the role and narrative of children as helpless victims and the more prevailing role and narrative of children as active agents. In regarding children and youths in the light of the theoretical frameworks this section will demonstrate the different roles of children and discuss the research question; Why is it important to regard children and youths as active participants and agents in the context of climate change?

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5.1 CRC and Article 12

Several international agreements and documents need to protect children, not only their vulnerable positions as children but their rights and participatory rights in the context of climate change. Children are recognized as the most vulnerable to the impact of climate change and should therefore be in the forefront of climate change policy, advocacy and research, and yet they still often are not. A critical opportunity has not yet been fully explored which may be able to elevate attention to children’s issues related to climate change.

(UNICEF, 2014, p.49) The CRC is the most widely ratified international human rights treaty in history. Thus, CRC could be a powerful framework for climate action. Governments have ratified and have obligations under the CRC. This means that governments are legally bound to take action to uphold each individual article protecting child rights, and thus take action on climate change in order to ensure that it does not infringe on child rights in national terms. (ibid) By articulating climate impacts using the CRC, the emphasis can be shifted to

prioritizing children as the most vulnerable population, engendering a rights-based approach, and advocating for the survival of children, development and protection all over the world. In 2011, at least 12 countries noted environmental degradation and climate change as a barrier to the implementation of CRC. If challenges to the CRC are monitored, the evidence can be strengthened and used to inform UNFCCC mechanisms.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child, the body of independent experts of the CRC, has specifically identified the duty of states to protect the child’s right to health from climate change impacts. The Committee has identified four general principles that represent fundamental values of the Convention. These are the right of all children to be heard and taken seriously, the right to non-discrimination, the right to life and development, and the primary consideration of the child’s best interests. As the Committee has explained, the views expressed by children may add relevant perspectives and experience and should be considered in decision-making, policymaking and the preparation of laws and/or measures as well as their evaluation. (UNICEF, 2014, p.55) The implementation of the 12th Article of the CRC, which concern the right of the child to be heard on all matters affecting the child, takes different forms depending on the cultural context, the political system and the administrative traditions. Traditional emphasis has been on the state’s role and school’s potential in

promoting political socialization, which entails that children’s politics is considered more or less in quality to adults. The conception of childhood as a more or less apolitical field of social and cultural practices has given rise to some critical response. (Kallio & Häkli, 2011) Children’s mundane politics have not attracted much attention in academia, nor is this an

19 issue commonly discussed in child policy contexts.

While providing children with opportunities to have their say on the matters of their interest and concern, parliamentary participation engages children with a system that is dedicated to governing them. (Kallio & Häkli, 2011) Moreover, it becomes obvious that children’s ways of thinking and acting on the grounds of political awareness differ notably from those taking place in their everyday life. ‘Children’ are not a group any more than ‘adults’. Moreover, children’s mundane power relations should not be bypassed when involving certain children in policy making or political activism since these involvements may have unintentional consequences for the political geographies of children’s everyday lives at large. The particularity of children’s politics is that, besides political beings, children are also political becomings, which is a fact that has been largely disregarded in childhood studies for more than 20 years due to the paradigmatic change accentuating children’s present lives. (Fielding, 2007) (Kallio & Häkli, 2011) However, it could be argued that children and young people are neither in a state of “becoming” future citizens not training to be

participations in the sphere of formal politics; they are citizens with agency.

5.2 Children’s agency in the context of climate change

Children and young adults are commonly treated as victims of climate change and natural events, requiring protection by adults in the climate change and disasters literature, and this is also often the case in public debate concerning children and climate change. The status of victimization of children might be linked to their status in society; children do not set the research agenda, carry out research, participate in decision making or hold professional positions to prioritize such issues. Strong arguments exist in support of children’s increased climate change engagement. First, children’s engagement has been framed as a moral obligation, that children, as key stakeholders, have a right to information and engaged in issues that affect them and their lives. Furthermore, children’s engagement has been advocated as a pragmatic course of action, that it is necessary to prepare children for the reality of the future and their inevitable role as tomorrow’s leaders in addressing climate change. (Trott, 2020, p.532) In addition to this, there is a need to cultivate empowering learning environment that support children’s awareness while inspiring their sustained interest and engagement.

There is an increasing and huge array of innovative studies which empirically and descriptively offer unique analytical interpretations of children’s active engagement with their everyday lives and with the enduring pattern of social and historical presence. (Oswell,

20 2013) A wealth of empirical studies have considered children as agentic beings, namely as social beings who make a difference to the social worlds around them. The academic discourse of children’s rights since the adoption of the CRC has been preoccupied with emphasizing the childhood image of the competent child. Yet, the question of children’s competence and incompetence with regard to their rights and their political participation has a long history, as mentioned earlier. A key facet of that history has been the relation of children, with regard to their lack of maturity, to both reason and speech. (Oswell, 2013, p.234) The interests of the child emerged in relation to perceived community and societal interests. In this sense, the protection of children was in the first instance the protection of society. (Oswell, 2013, p.235)

Findings from the study of Trott (2020) suggest that children’s agentic action may have, in turn, been an important vehicle for their growing climate change awareness. Acting on climate change both individually and collaboratively supported their learning while strengthening their sense of agency. Findings of this study suggest a mutually reinforcing, reciprocal relationship between children’s action and knowledge. With other words, this means that not only were children motivated to act based on their knowledge, but children’s action projects were also critical mechanisms for learning about themselves and their world. Furthermore, findings suggest that, by taking ownership of the issue and its solutions individually and collectively, children were able to develop a sense of constructive hope. These findings seem to reflect those of previous studies within student and informal climate change educators, indicating that hope is supported by beliefs in humans’ efficacy to make a difference. In theorizing children’s constructive climate change engagement, children’s actions matter because they provide a portal through which to learn about climate change and to make a tangible difference in their families and communities. Furthermore, children’s sense of agency matters because it can support children’s sustained interest and active

participation. (Trott, 2020, p. 549) Finally, children’s awareness matters because, as the study of Trott (2020) found, it can be both an antecedent to agency and a consequence of action, while serving as the raw material for intergenerational and political advocacy. These findings support the claim that children can be competent knowledge-bearers and critical actors in the transformation of a more sustainable future and world.

The insight that children are, within the generational power structure,

structurally disadvantaged in relation to adults and thus have the status of a social minority, has found its way from Childhood Studies into socio-political practice aimed at improving the position of children in society. Since the adoption of the UN CRC (1989), children all

21 over the world have been accorded the status of subjects having rights. This means that children are no longer the objects of subjective action by adults, but can exercise their rights, and can insist on the observation of these rights themselves. (Esser et al. 2016) At the same time as children are regarded as having rights and obligations, the law limits children’s agency by defining them as “minors” who are dependent on adults and who have special limitations and duties, but also rights to protection. Both the representation of children in the context of social research and their position as social actors have been influenced by two interconnecting factors. From a scholarly perspective, the aim was to adequately represent the agency of children, while from a political perspective, this more accurate representation was expected to help improve children’s situation. (Esser et al. 2016)

Scholars have furthermore argued that if children are widely acknowledged as social actors then they have a role to play in their own representation, to have their own voices heard, and to be positioned as the subjects rather than the objects of research and the will of the adults. This ultimately means, that the only “real” form of Childhood Studies is (qualitative) research with children. In relation to the agency of the child, both feminist theories of care as well as certain strands within Social Theory share the aspiration to locate agency in social relations and interdependency instead of independence and autonomy. One of the most obvious implications of childhood is that research on children and childhood needs to be conducted in a genuinely interdisciplinary fashion. This derives from approaching social life as a dynamic field of confrontations and struggles between social forces. The approach then allows for viewing even children as a structural group in relation to other groups and capable of collective action and thus capable of engaging in social struggles.

However, the twentieth century has been argued to be and been the age of children’s agency. Children are not simply beings; they are more significantly doings. They make a difference to the world. Over the period from the late nineteenth century up until now, children’s capacity to do has intensified and the areas in which they are able to do have proliferated. Children’s presence has not only been felt by them and by others because somehow children over this period of time have gained a voice which was before hidden, or that they had a strength and political power that has until now not been revealed. Rather, children’s capacities to speak, act and become disclosed in particular contexts have been dependent on their being networked, assembled or organized with other people and things in such ways to endow them with powers. (Oswell, 2013) Children are increasingly seen and related to as democratic beings. In various disciplines, groups of scholars have begun to

22 provide empirical and theoretical understanding for the emerging, developing and extending agency of children.

Furthermore, the construction of young people in terms of their right to their life implies, that moral authority becomes individualized, not such that individualization is an external imposing process, but rather such that it is something that young people do to themselves. The institution of ‘childhood’ is seen as a fenced garden, but one that constitutes the segregation and also arguable imprisonment of children. Even though children are

constructed in a liberal discourse as having competency regarding political and life decisions, they are furthermore, because there is a genealogical connection with romanticism, often regarded as innocent beings. (Oswell, 2013) To understand children as subjects of speech is not to constitute them with a prior identity; rather, their speech raises their identity as a matter of disagreement, a matter which is not simply settled. To pose the question of children’s rights in this way is not to provide a model of citizenship, but to look at the resources deployed with respect to rights and the democratic and to position children as a problem therein. (Oswell, 2013)

Moreover, Nick Lee(2001) argues that Article 12 of the CRC , which is

concerned with the participatory rights of children, allows children to be viewed outside of a normatively defined developmental discourse and in harmony with their status as ‘human beings’, but he argues that the article clearly frames children’s expression in the context of their maturity or immaturity and as such their word cannot simply be taken at face value. Its mediation is more problematic. Lee states that Article 12 is ambivalent about children, about their capabilities to have their voices of their own, and about the level of attention that should be given to those voices. The case for children’s rights is measured in terms of children’s competence and capacity to speak and to reason, which has been shaped by their learning and development within a schooled context. This is not to disavow competence, but to frame any notion of children’s rights in the context of the historical and contingent accumulation of resources and infrastructures concerning what counts as political expression, in what areas, with regard to what topics, with regard to what authority and with what capacity to change people and things. (Oswell, 2013, p.259) Some scholars have argued that to fully implement the voices of children the hierarchy system needs to change.

23

5.3 Children and intergenerational justice

Climate change is irrevocably transforming the world of children and young adults, thus supporting the agency of children and young adults in developing solutions is both a right and a necessity. If given the necessary assistance to claim their right to participate in decisions which have an impact on them, children might be able to push the climate crisis into national policy processes, and help make intergenerational justice a priority at home, and by

extension, also in global climate negotiations. (Gibbons, 2014, p.25) Children and future generations cannot afford to wait for adaptation to climate change, they are and will continue to suffer the greatest losses if climate finance and adaptation continue to fall so far short of what is required and needed to save the Earth and children’s future. Their suffering and losses furthermore need to stand in context to their position of being the least responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions that drive the climate change. (Gibbons, 2014, p.26) From this, one can understand the great intergenerational climate injustice that climate change and global warming brings. However, with the CRC, despite its sometimes-contradicting language, children and their representative have a lever to hold their governments accountable for realizing their rights. Climate change furthermore propels the realization of children’s rights into a higher priority and special urgency, given climate change’s potentially catastrophic impact on children at any moment, nor or in the future. (Gibbons 2014: 26)

Despite the complexity in determining the accountability for the devastation wreaked by climate change, children have through the leverage provided by the CRC some power to claim their rights and lobby current local and national decision-makers to develop policies that favor mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Children are less responsible for climate change than the poor countries in which they might live. The human rights principle of children’s right to equality and non-discrimination compels States to direct focus and resources to those most excluded and marginalized, yet at both the global and national levels, the de facto discrimination against children is compounded by de jure exclusion of their concerns from global UNFCCC instruments and policy processes, and from national policies and instruments of climate change adaptation. (Gibbons, 2014, p.27) This

discrimination against children demands intergenerational climate justice.

Within the field of climate ethics and philosophy, researchers have analyzed the normative implications of climate change, especially with a focus on the issue of global and intergenerational justice. (UNICEF, 2014, p.56) With respect to intergenerational justice, with the idea that present generations have certain duties towards all members of the

24 important to note here, is that this argument suggest that the human society do not only have duties to protect the human rights of current generations, but also the ones of future

generations. This claim is a step further in the approach and focus of the thesis but is still relevant and exceedingly important to understand and to deal with the issue of

intergenerational climate justice. It is further argued that current generations have duties now that are correlative to the human rights of future persons. Human rights are grounded in our humanity, and there is no need to know the particular identity of a person before we know that they have human rights. The notion of Human rights is grounded in the interests that we have qua humans. Thus, it is a valid claim and belief that future persons will have more or less the same human rights as current persons.

Legal action on behalf of the human right of future generations, although a complex issue, is not unheard of. As an example, to prove both the role of children as agents but also the emphasis and moral obligation to future generations, the case from 1992 in the Philippines can demonstrate this. In 1992, 43 children, acting as representatives of

succeeding generations, petitioned the Federal Constitutional Court of the Philippines and sued the government for failing to prevent the destruction of the country’s rainforests. The children framed the case an issue of intergenerational justice in relation to the management of environmental resources by adults and the implications of these actions for their own future. (Gibbons, 2014, p.28) Furthermore, to demonstrate the role of children as agents and still emphasis the significance of intergenerational justice, the words of the young climate activist Greta Thunberg(2018) can demonstrate this; “So, we have not come here to beg the world leaders to care for our future. They have ignored us in the past and they will ignore us again. [. . .] We have come here to let them know that change is coming whether they like it or not. The people will rise to the challenge. And since our leaders are behaving like children, we will have to take the responsibility they should have taken long ago.” (Thunberg, 2018)

5.4 Children as helpless victims

In recent decades, research on vulnerability has increased dramatically. Several theorists have made remarks on the general moral significance of vulnerability. Further, some theorists treat vulnerability as a general ontological phenomenon endemic to the human condition. On this view, vulnerability is a common feature of all human beings and is grounded in the embodied nature that render everyone susceptible to injury and harm. These theorists tend to hold that recognition of the commonality of vulnerability diminishes the importance of approaches to moral theory that emphasize autonomy in which mature agents are viewed as independent,

25 rational beings capable of meeting their needs with little assistance. On the contrary, there are theorists who emphasize the way in which vulnerability distinguishes persons from each other in virtue of the fact that some persons are more susceptible to harm or injury than other.

Such theorists tend to identify groups of humans whose vulnerable position give rise to special moral concerns and duties on behalf of the less vulnerable to protect those humans who are particularly prone to harm or injury. (Macleod, 2019, p.261) As have been recognized, children are one group who are especially vulnerable to the harm and injury caused by climate change and global warming. Groups that are identified as human who are especially vulnerable to harm or injury tend to be perceived with an inability to secure their own interests and that external actors have special duties of care towards them. The need of protection needs to be emphasized here, and so does the position of children to secure their interests and concerns, however their agency should not in turn be neglected or ignored. After all, the second view of vulnerability is compatible with acknowledging that all humans have vulnerabilities and are in some different degrees, dependent on other for meeting their needs.

In relation to this, children are often presented as paradigmatic examples of vulnerability, not only in the context of climate change. The perception that they are not autonomous, are physically weak, are easily emotionally wounded and are subject to

manipulation permits, and indeed requires, adults to attend to their interests and concerns in special ways so as to protect them from harm and to ensure healthy development. However, overemphasis on the incapacities of children can distort the ways in which children

themselves can have a stake in responding to and regulating their own vulnerability. (Macleod, 2019, p.262) Although children are not fully autonomous, several theorists have pointed out that children can meaningfully voice views about how they should be treated and that adults have reasons to be attentive and respectful of the choices children make. All this has implications for how we should understand and respond to the vulnerability of children. As a final remark on this section, now consider how the choices of competent adults

complicate the understanding of the relation between vulnerability and moral duties.

One of the prerogatives that competent adults have is to take risks that generate vulnerabilities. When it comes to self-chosen vulnerabilities, the duties to protect people from harm or injury arising from their vulnerability are mitigated. However, in the context of children’s vulnerability and climate change, this vulnerability is far from self-chosen or even self-made. In contrast with adults, children are widely assumed to lack the authority to make significant choices about their own lives. However, the idea that an appropriate moral

26 response to children’s vulnerability might involve treatment that leaves them more

susceptible to harm or injury has the tendency of a paradox. (Macleod, 2019, p.264)

5.5 Children as active agents of change

Environmental issues are ultimately a result of human behavior and can thus be mitigated and reversed also through human behavior, not just through scientific and technological solutions. Agenda 21 (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development) identified young people as key stakeholders that have a unique contribution to make towards sustainable development and dedicated Chapter 25 to the significance of children’s and young people’s participation in decision making to create their own future. The participation of young people in sustainable development efforts will determine the success of these efforts. (Buttigieg & Pace, 2013) There has been little research conducted in young people who are leaders in environmental action. Despite the lack of research, it has been claimed that those people and communities at risk from climate change become increasingly frustrated at the lack of any kind of accountability mechanisms to deal with a phenomenon caused by man and with devastating human consequences. (Limon, 2009, p.440) And as acknowledged, those people at most risk from climate change are children and young people, thus the engagement of resistance, activism and participation concerning the environment is well motivated for children and young people. Being an activist within an environmental organization involves trying to actively influence policy making and public opinion to take and support

environmental measures. (Buttigieg & Pace, 2013)

In regard to this, the concept of locus of control is worth mentioning, which represents an individual’s perception of whether he or she has the ability to influence life events through own behavior. If people feel that they can control some feature of their external world, they are more likely to work actively towards improving it. (Buttigieg & Pace, 2013) This demonstrates how important it is for young people and children to feel their own agency and be able to act from it, and furthermore it demonstrates how important it is for external actors to support their voice and agency and listen to it. Political activism requires loads of energy and perseverance, however, at the same time, it might make one feel like an agent of change- an agent of ‘revolution’. Research has also shown that collective and organized group activity can build a sense of collective efficacy. (Oskamp, 2002) Even though individual actions is important, organized activism is frequently necessary when dealing with large-scale issues since the perpetrators are very often governments or powerful

27 corporations, against whom, individual action would most probably go unnoticed. (Oskamp, 2002)

In engaging with climate change, youths are implicitly or explicitly entering into debates that involve dissenting from prevailing norms, beliefs, and practices, including economic and social norm like consumption, the use of fossil fuel and the unjust use of power in decision-making. Some scholars argue that rather than perpetuating an injustice, citizens should follow their own conscience by doing what is right, even if this means breaking the law. Thus, arguing that citizens have a duty to dissent and to exercise “their own moral judgement” rather than to obey an unjust law or a government. Furthermore, the ability to express political dissent rather than simply frustration requires a mature level of social consciousness, moral reasoning, and insight into the situation that an individual or

community is experiencing (Schlitz et al. 2010) In relation to climate change, some youth might feel excluded from meaningful participation in current debates and decisions. When it comes to resistance, the action of engagement has been a huge success in accomplishing social justice and a more equal world. Some scholars have argued that there are different forms of resistance and dissent, but that a combination of dutiful, disruptive and dangerous dissent may be necessary to support social transformation as an effective response to climate change. Indeed, most successful social movements, such as the civil rights and women’s rights movements, involved all three types pf dissent, each of which contributed to reclaiming, reframing, and transforming previously stigmatized accounts of group membership (O’Brien et al. 2018)

The myth of children as victims is still dominant and greatly influenced by the traditional perception of children as objects of protection rather than as holders of rights and change. The participation of children in issues concerning climate change is in the best interest of the child. The institutional mechanisms for the participation of children must therefore be ensured at all levels and at all stages of decision-making on climate change issues. Furthermore, it is imperative to ensure the empowerment of children and to build their resilience through capacity development. This would include developing leadership skills and ensuring that they understand the scientific, technological, economic and social aspects of climate change. Child and youth-led communities should receive broad support from both the public and the private sector. To date, climate change decision-making and responses have paid little attention to how adaptation measures can be child-led, with the result that there is little institutional knowledge of initiatives taken by children to reduce their communities’ vulnerability to climate change.

28 There is an urgent need now to involve children in climate change adaptation and to recognize their capacity to participate in decision-making. (UNICEF, 2014, p.73) Their active participation in adaptation solutions can be a powerful force for change but can also enhance their resilience to climate shocks and stresses. It has been argued that the largest generation of young people the world has ever known is the main driving force that needs to be mobilized to reverse global environmental degradation and address the consequences of climate change. (UNICEF, 2014, p.75) Children should be recognized as active and inspiring agents of global change towards a sustainable future for all. Countless examples from all over the world demonstrate children and youth to be resourceful, innovate, and passionate

thinkers, advocates, and leaders on climate change action. However, it is still the responsibility of policymakers and implementers to support children’s actions and engagement, through entering effective partnerships with this key constituency. A socio-political system which does not equip its future citizens and leaders for the future that they are expected to meet and does not involve them in its decision-making process is highly unsustainable. The impact of youth engagement and leadership is further magnified when their voices are connected, and heard in national and intergovernmental forums, as well as in the media. (UNICEF, 2014, p.84)

5.5.1 Children in adaptation strategies

A study conducted by Polack (2010) in Kenya and Cambodia, attempts to capture the voices of children in the local context of climate change and adaptation strategies. The study emphasizes the role of children as active agents of change and not merely as victims of climate change. Children in Kenya identified key climate-related hazards in their community, and how these impacted them. The children then linked particular impacts of climate change or mechanisms taken by their families to cope with climate change, with violations of their rights. Children from both cases in Cambodia and Kenya seemed to be very aware of the downward spiraling implications of increased poverty and hunger brought about by drought, which is the primary concern linked to climate change in Kenya. The evidence clearly demonstrates that many of the children from Kenya felt that climate change has the potential to negatively impact their aspirations of a good future. (Polack, 2010, p.18-19) One of the most common topics of discussion for the children found in this research, was the lack of voice or power to stop further environmental degradation. (Polack, 2010, p.19) Campaigns of planting trees across Kenya have inspired children to engage in the management of their natural resources. Children prove to have knowledge on reforestation, agroforestry, and