Children will be at COP27 for the first time – We must think about how we listen to them

Children will be at COP27 for the first time – We must think about how we listen to them

Professor Peter Kraftl, expert in children’s geographies at the University of Birmingham:

“For the first time ever, children will have an official voice at the UN Climate Change Conference. The Children and Youth Pavilion at COP27 will enable young people to hold discussions and policy briefings.

“This is a long-overdue advance. More than ever before, children across the globe must find ways to adapt to and live well with multiple forms of uncertainty – and climate change is one of their most pressing concerns.

“However we need to think beyond simply listening to children’s voices (and partitioning children in a separate pavilion) to imagine what genuine collaboration might look like. In particular, that will mean finding ways to move beyond the short-termism that often permeates debates about human responses to climate change, with a view to longer-term notions of intergenerational – and even inter-species justice.”