Children, young people and climate change: developing child-centred indicators for climate justice

The project draws on Y&R’s unique creative methods which have been tested and applied in 79 countries to ensure young people are at the heart of policy and decision-making that effects their lives.

We consulted with 49 children and young people (10-18 years) from across NSW in creative, participatory workshops to understand their views on climate change and co-design child-centred indicators. To capture the broad range of impacts of climate change, we engaged with young people in flood-impacted communities in Northern NSW, an urban area impacted by slow onset climate change in Western Sydney, and a transitional economy in the Upper Hunter. Workshops were held over two days to enable young people to make in-depth and meaningful contributions to the outputs and outcomes.

Throughout the process, we trained a young person as a co-researcher to contribute to analysis of workshop data, development of the child-centered indicators, write up of the final report, and assist with sharing the findings to young people across Australia. In future phases of the project, we will work together to activate the indicators and scale up to other settings and contexts where addressing climate change is most urgent.

Learning resources created through this project, on the topic of climate change, have been accessed by 172 schools and community organisations impacting approximately 30,000 young people. The resources were distributed in the lead up to World Children’s Day 2023 via UNICEF Australia’s Minute of Loudness promotional webpage.

This work has already attracted praise in the youth-work sector through the NSW Youth Work Awards 2023, where we were nominated for our ‘Outstanding Partnership’ together with UNICEF Australia. The NSW Youth Work Awards are an annual celebration of the exceptional work of youth services and youth workers across NSW. The awards are hosted by Youth Action, the peak body representing young people and the services that support them in NSW.

The child-centred indicator framework presented in an upcoming report offers a practical tool to support the public, private and civil society sectors to design, implement, monitor, and evaluate the short to long-term impacts of climate policies and interventions, in partnership with children and young people. Using measurement as a key point of intervention, this framework aims to centre children’s and young people’s diverse needs, concerns, and aspirations and to initiate intergenerational conversations about how to best safeguard their present and build climate-resilient futures.

The 15 recommendations included in our final report will bring attention to practical areas for improvement.