In recent years, the climate emergency has triggered a worldwide response from children and young people. The school strikes for the climate are a distinguished example.
Through this activism, children are expressing their frustration with political systems that exclude their voices. This situation is very essential because children will bear the brunt of future climate disasters.
It seems that their message is getting through. Our current research shows that adults in Australia and New Zealand generally support children being consulted in government decisions on the environment.
So what’s the trigger for this support and the way can or not it’s put into practice?
Our study
Despite the continued political debate about whether and the way children's views needs to be taken into consideration in environmental decisions, we all know surprisingly little about general public attitudes.
To address this issue, we added an issue to national surveys in New Zealand and Australia as a part of the 2020 study. International Social Survey ProgrammeApproximately 1,000 people participated in each survey and sample weights were applied to make sure nationally representative results.
We desired to understand how much respondents supported the views of kids and young people being included in government decision-making on the environment. The query was asked in relation to 4 different age groups: 3-5 12 months olds, 6-10 12 months olds, 11-14 12 months olds and 15-18 12 months olds.
Our findings
We found that a majority of adults surveyed in each countries support giving 11- to 14-year-olds (62% in Australia and 59% in New Zealand) and 15- to 18-year-olds (79% in Australia and 80% in New Zealand) the chance to influence government decisions on environmental issues.
Our analyses also showed that different population groups usually tend to support including children's voices in environmental decisions than others. For example, across all child age groups, women were consistently more willing to support this than men.
Historically, women have borne the brunt of exclusion from political participation, despite playing a key role in raising children through their roles as moms and teachers. This context may mean that ladies show more respect and empathy and subsequently are more committed to making sure that children's views are heard.
Green voters, members of environmental organizations and 18- to 30-year-olds are also more more likely to support the inclusion of kids's views than other population groups.
Try to be heard
Our finding that there may be high level of public support for giving young people a voice is consistent with the lobbying for a lowering of the voting age to 16 in each countries.
Young people in Australia began the Make it 16 campaign in June 2023. In New Zealand, the present National Party-led coalition government recently rejected steps to push forward laws to boost the voting age, which was introduced by the previous government in response to a successful case within the Supreme Court by the New Zealand Make it 16 campaign. Laws to boost the voting age.
The rejection of this ruling is an undemocratic violation of human rights as set out within the United Nations Convention on the rights of the kid.
The UN published a “comment” in response to children's calls for motion. It sets out clearly what governments must do. It states that governments must make sure that children's views are heard in any respect stages of the environmental decision-making process. This applies to decisions at local, national and international levels.
Nikki Short/AAP
Winds of change
Our findings exhibit that the general public in Australia and New Zealand is attentive to calls for greater involvement of kids in environmental decision-making.
In fact, our results reflect a better level of public support than that observed in previous Research The study focused on a more general query and asked adults in regards to the opinions of kids and young people on the participation of kids and young people in government decisions.
School strikes can have a positive impact on adults’ attitudes towards the involvement of kids within the political sphere. Media coverage of young individuals who politically lively could also change adults’ opinions about young people’s political engagement.
In other words, the more adults hear and see stories in regards to the concerns and efforts of kids and young people to guard the environment, the more likely they’re to know and support their views.
The way forward
How can we make sure that children's views are more taken into consideration in government decisions in regards to the environment? There are some basic steps that might be taken.
MPs could do that by listening to children and young people of their constituencies. Kindergartens, schools, and art, culture and sports centres can support MPs' access to children and youth forums.
In addition, there are youth parliamentary programmes reminiscent of the YMCA program might be formally embedded within the Australian parliamentary system. This would make sure that bills introduced by young individuals are heard and voted on. Similarly, the parliamentary system in New Zealand could incorporate the triennial Youth Parliament.
Children and young people have the correct to have their concerns heard and to influence policies that can have a serious impact on their future lives – far beyond those of current politicians.
image credit : theconversation.com