Listening and supporting children in climate change

The threat of climate change for children is far larger than for adults - they are going to spend their lives in a reality we are only just beginning to see. The impacts here now are already harming them. So what do children need from us? Protection is a core emotional need. As adults we need to step in, and children need to see us stepping in.  To do this, we need to look after ourselves first. When adults act from fear and trauma, outcomes often cause more harm than good. A child-centred perspective guides adults to face such an unprecedented situation deliberatively and compassionately. This page provides parents with tips and advice to cope so that they can be present for their children.

 Caroline Hickman states that "Climate anxiety and dissatisfaction with government responses are widespread in children and young people in countries across the world and impact their daily functioning. A perceived failure by governments to respond to the climate crisis is associated with increased distress. There is an urgent need for further research into the emotional impact of climate change on children and young people and for governments to validate their distress by taking urgent action on climate change. "

Greta Thunberg, who started the school climate strikes, stood in front of the UN General Assembly in 2019 and said "I shouldn't be up here, I should be back at school". She was right. Children and young people's emotional distress drove the school climate strikes. And their emotional distress reflected the lack of protective action by adults. It is a safeguarding issue.  Children have an emotional need to experience that we are acting to protect them. The action itself is what is needed. That we are taking a considered, child-centred and responsible approach to the climate and ecological emergency.  That we are being responsible adults.