Report Card 17 provides five key recommendations to improve the environments in which children live and develop:
1. Focus on children now, protect the future
Today’s environmental problems are costing children healthy years of life. In most cases – including with waste and pollution – the same issues that are damaging the planet in the long run are also damaging children’s lives today. Governments at the national, regional and local level need to lead on improvements to children’s environments today, by reducing waste, air and water pollution, and by ensuring high-quality housing and neighbourhoods where children can live, develop and thrive.
2. Improve environments for the most vulnerable children
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed stark inequalities both between and within countries. Children in poor families tend to face greater exposure to environmental harm than do children in richer families. This entrenches and amplifies existing disadvantage. To reduce inequalities, national, regional and local governments and authorities should prioritize investments designed to improve the quality of housing and neighbourhood conditions for the poorest families, so that all children have environments that are fit for them to grow up in.
3. Ensure that environmental policies are child sensitive
Governments and policymakers should make sure that the needs of children are built into decision making. Children are more affected than adults by certain environmental risks, because their bodies are still developing; and the needs they have of their environments are distinct. All countries should ensure that policies are child sensitive, in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Examples can be taken from those governments that have already implemented child rights impact assessments for all policies – and from the many governments that are presently seeking to make their environments more child friendly. Adaptation to climate change should also be at the forefront of action for both governments and the global community, and across various sectors from education to infrastructure. Efforts should be child sensitive and include the construction of children’s adaptive capacity.
4. Involve children, the main stakeholders of the future
Children will face today’s environmental problems for the longest time; but they are also the least able to influence the course of events. Adult decision makers at all levels, from parents to politicians, must listen to their perspectives and take them into account when designing policies that will disproportionately affect future generations. Through examples such as child and youth parliaments and citizens’ assemblies, children should be involved in environmental debates and decisions, and in designing their immediate environments.
5. Take global responsibility, now and for the future
Environmental impacts have no respect for national borders. Air pollution produced within one country harms neighbouring countries and the entire world. Policies and practices must safeguard the natural environment on which children depend. Governments and businesses, through regulations and/or incentives, should identify and mitigate their global impact on the environment. Governments should take effective action now to honour the environmental commitments they have made to the Sustainable Development Goals, including to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.