August 2024 for the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee

What Children Say

Children and young people have expressed to our office they feel there has been a lack of meaningful action on climate change and immediate steps to work towards slowing global warming should be made.

Our Young Advisors have highlighted the importance of setting targets and are disappointed that the Scottish Government’s target to cut carbon emissions was dropped earlier this year.

They spoke of the frustration they feel when the Government talk about things they should do, but then don’t see a lot of that being implemented in practice. Our Young Advisors felt it was important to put these matters into law so that it is not a choice. They were keen that people in power be held accountable.

‘I feel like there’s a lot more talking than doing. The talking they do must align with their actions. Where’s the actions?’ (CYPCS Young Advisor).

‘The targets that have been scrapped, That’s something that’s in my head. We’re meant to be one of the big renewable giants in Europe. It’s really disappointing.’(CYPCS Young Advisor).

Setting targets is a way to measure progress towards the goal of achieving net zero. It creates a level of accountability to the public, including children and young people.

Climate Policy and Children’s Rights

This is important from a child’s rights perspective. Scotland (along with the rest of the world) faces a nature-climate crisis. Climate change and biodiversity loss is a children’s rights issue and as such a rights-based approach should be taken. Climate change and the decline in biodiversity go hand in hand – we need to preserve nature, combat climate change and provide clean air, water and food sources.

Children and young people are disproportionately affected by the effects of climate change. They are particularly susceptible to physical and mental health related issues because of climate change. We have addressed some of our concerns regarding this in previous consultation responses. Most recently in the climate adaptation plan response .

The proposed climate targets have the potential to mitigate some of the effects of this if properly implemented and have the potential to uphold and protect children’s rights.

These issues directly engage UNCRC rights, now incorporated into Scots law, including;

• Article 6 – right to life and development.
• Article 24 – right to highest attainable standard of heath
• Article 27 – the right to a decent standard of living
• Article 29 – the right to education, including support to develop learn respect for the natural environment.

The UN Committee on Rights of the Child highlighted the importance of these issues in its most recent General Comment No. 26 (2023) which focused on children’s rights and the environment:

‘The extent and magnitude of the triple planetary crisis, comprising the climate emergency, the collapse of biodiversity and pervasive pollution, is an urgent and systemic threat to children’s rights globally.’

The most recent Concluding Observations made by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child with regard to the UK highlighted the need to:

‘Ensure that national policies and programmes on addressing environmental protection, climate change and disaster risk management… are developed and implemented in accordance with the principles of the Convention and take into account children’s needs and views’. 

Taking a children’s rights approach means ensuring children are not only protected by the policy but included in how this is made and implemented through effective participation. Children and young people want to be included in decisions made about the climate, and contribute to solutions.

This process starts with education, the lack of education on climate change is something which children and young people frequently talk to us about. Whilst there is a Learning for Sustainability Plan  more should be done to ensure its implementation.

Children and young people clearly want to learn more about environmental issues, including biodiversity loss and what they can do to contribute to improving this. 

“There was not enough education provided so I went out and researched it, I didn’t get taught in school” (CYPCS Young Advisor).

The UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Environment commented that children are more at risk from environmental problems than adults but their views and interests are often left out of decisions. 

Our Young Advisors wanted young people to be involved in decisions that were made on these issues and highlighted that it’s ‘our future land’. They felt they needed more information to be able to do this.

The Current Proposals

Transitioning to a system of carbon budgets is supported by the CCC and would align Scotland with the system in England and Wales. However, simply changing the method of target setting is not enough in itself as the goals will not be met without effective implementation. Without this, the Government are at risk of legal challenge. Recently, the Friends of the Earth were successful in their legal challenge of the UK Government climate plan with a ruling that it was ‘inadequate’.  The ruling found that despite there being policies in existence they had no substance behind them, they contained an unexplained evidence gap and made unjustified reasoning.

In announcing the move to carbon budgets, the Scottish Government have indicated that they will maintain their commitment to keeping the 2045 target. Our Young Advisors welcome this as a minimum.

The legislation should have a robust accountability framework built in to ensure that progress is made, monitored and understandable to children and young people. The new legislation should retain the principles of a just transition alongside international justice principles.

Under the Paris Agreement[1] there was a commitment made to recognise ‘common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities’; acknowledging the variations in capability and responsibility of individual countries to respond to climate change. Countries like Scotland have a bigger role to play on a global level.

Whilst we are concerned with the effects of climate change in Scotland, children and young people often speak to us about the global impact of climate change. Scotland has to be conscious not only of the damage that is done to our own environment here in Scotland but the impact we have on a wider scale. We cannot simply ‘outsource’ our emissions, or waste to other countries or rely on taking resources from them.

Domestically, a just transition will involve considering the impact on different vulnerable groups within Scotland. we are especially concerned of the effects climate change policy will have on households experiencing poverty. Those experiencing poverty are more likely to suffer the effects of climate change and are less equipped to deal with the consequences.

[1] The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change