Book Launch: Children as Climate Citizens – A sociolegal approach to public participation. Routledge, 2023.

Climate change affects young people in many ways, this book maintains that children are not to be identified solely with their vulnerability to climate change. Children are also key stakeholders in the sustainable implementation of long-term climate change policies, and their inclusion in decision-making processes is a measure of intergenerational equity. Children’s rights law is vague about the right to public participation or the environmental rights of children as such. Through exploring the difficulties but also the opportunities and aspirations of children as citizens challenging the current climate change regime, the book proposes legal and policy tools for children’s participation in global climate change governance, as it outlines a concept of children’s climate citizenship.

Speakers at the event will reflect on the network of pathways of public participation discussed in the book, which children employ to make an impact on climate action: high level conferences and governance structures to grassroots youth movements and climate change litigation. The event provides a platform for a diverse audience (academics, civil society and policy-makers) discussing the practices and challenges; developments in law and policies; as well as young people’s views and experiences as climate citizens.

Programme

12h30 Lunch

13h00. Introduction 

Liliana Lizarazo Rodriguez, Research professor BSoG-Vrije Universiteit Brussel PI ERC Curiae Virides project 

13h10 The sociolegal concept of “children as climate citizens”

Kata Dozsa, author  

The author of the book explains the notion of “children as climate citizens”. She takes stock of the legal-policy instruments that establish or strengthen children’s right to public participation and the real-life pathways of children practicing climate citizenship in governance spaces, social movement activism litigation.

13h30 The right of children to participate in policymaking and governance processes

Marie-Cécile Rouillon, European Commission Coordinator for the Rights of the Child (tbc)

Climate change is one of the child-rights priorities of the European Commission. As an EU official responsible for mainstreaming children’s rights in EU law and policies, Marie-Cécile Rouillon reflects on the opportunities and the challenges of implementing child participation in governance processes.

13h45 Where are the children? – The systemic issues in institutionalised governance spaces at the UN climate conferences

 Benjamin Van Bunderen Robberecht - Climate and children’s rights activist, Belgium

Ben (17), a young activist from Belgium gives feedback on the book’s chapter about child participation at United Nations conferences, as well as personal perspectives of representing children’s rights at the CO28 in 2023.

14h Changing the status quo? Trends in social movement activism and climate change litigation with children – Conversation with the audience

Exchange of thoughts led by Liliana Lizarazo Rodriguez, Kata Dozsa and the guest speakers, on the developments and trends in children’s social movement activism as well as the phenomenon of young people shouldering the responsibility of intergenerational climate justice.