FAILURES in government environment policy and legislation

Government has a duty to do all it can to protect citizens.  Members of Parliament have a responsibility to 'safeguard and promote the wellbeing of children'. The development of government climate and environment policy and legislation has left a yawning gap that is becoming ever more evident as the harm/ threats grow. Policy and law has been developed without proper regard for the welfare of children and the differential impact on them of our worsening climate crisis. This is neglect. 

The Climate Change Act (2008) was developed to bind the UK to cutting carbon emissions and set targets associated with this. This Act does not have regard for the particular needs of children and young people in considering this process, in particular how different pathways to lower carbon emissions may impact their physical and developmental health, nor how the increasingly unstable climate will impact their emotional wellbeing. 

The Climate Change Act (2008) introduced the Committee on Climate Change to advise the government. The Committee has no representative whose role is safeguarding children and young people, nor does it specifically mention the need to consider safeguarding responsibilities in the work they do. There is also no method by which young people can feed their experiences and needs into the work. Children and young people are the group most significantly impacted by this work, yet their physical and emotional needs are not formally integrated into the process. This is neglect. 

We are proposing that all current policy and legislation pays due regard to our duty of care to children by review of these documents from the perspective of child safeguarding. The review should consider the impact of the area being addressed on children and whether the policy and legislation developed adequately meets the needs of children to protect them from these impacts. 

In addition, we recommend that all new environment policy and legislation is developed with the integral involvement of child safeguarding professionals. These professionals should be trained and experienced in prioritising the welfare of children, and have the capacity and resources to seek expert evidence regarding the impacts on children of the associated areas of climate harm, and bring the expressed views and needs of children. This properly reflects the values and tenets of our child protection framework and will ensure that children's needs will not be neglected in the UK's national response to the climate crisis.