Young people and climate change

Young people, particularly those from disadvantaged and low-income backgrounds, are among the hardest hit by climate change. Charities are being urged to ensure their strategies and policies to improve the environment consider the distinct issues young people will face.

That will mean a culture change for some charities as they move beyond a focus on making their own organisations more eco-friendly and instead ask how they can better support the younger generation as climate change worsens in decades to come.

The focus on reducing the impact of environmental damage on communities, including young, disadvantaged people, is also the responsibility of all charities, rather than only youth charities with a specific mission to help young people.

As part of our Climate Action Campaign, we look in detail at this call to action, the environmental problems young people face, and the action charities can take. 

Why focus on young people?

The call to ensure charities’ climate action includes a focus on young people has been made by New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) in a call to action briefing report published in 2023. This follows on from a declaration by UNICEF in 2021 that the climate crisis is a “child rights crisis”.

As climate change worsens young people will bear the brunt of its impact on the planet, with more floods, pollution and wildfires predicted. These will negatively impact on children’s health, welfare and development, it warns.

NPC points out that compared to people born in 1960, children born in 2020 will face:

• Twice as many wildfires
• 2.8 times more crop failures
• 2.6 times more droughts
• 2.8 times more river floods
• 6.8 times as many heatwaves

NPC also notes that young people’s developing bodies breathe more quickly than adults, making them particularly vulnerable to air pollution. “A child is born into dangerously polluted air every two minutes,” NPC warns.

In addition, almost all (98%) local authorities are reporting at least one climate change hazard in their area already, including extreme heat, flooding, and heavy rain.

How are disadvantaged young people impacted?

Young people are among the top five groups most affected by climate change according to councils, with low-income households, older people, ethnic minority communities and those with health vulnerabilities also mentioned in NPC’s analysis.

Young, disadvantaged people are already at risk of physical and mental health problems, food insecurity, poorer education and pollution. These challenges will worsen due to climate change in terms of:

• Local air pollution for those in urban areas of deprivation
• Flooding for disadvantaged young people in coastal and rural areas
• Abuse, amid evidence that high temperatures and natural disasters increase such incidents
• Infrastructure collapse as public transport, NHS facilities and affordable food distributors, which disadvantaged communities rely on, struggle to cope amid heatwaves and natural disasters

Action charities can take

NPC calls for charities to consider young people more in their strategies rather than focusing on making their organisations eco-friendlier.

Action charities can take include focusing their lobbying and campaigning on persuading governments to introduce environmental policies to improve the lives of young people.

NPC says that disadvantaged young people “have the most to gain” from green policies to improve housing, air quality, public transport and access to green spaces.

Specific policies with the greatest impact on young people include schemes to improve insulation in homes, which will reduce energy bills for families. Low emission zones to ban polluting cars from city centres is another that will benefit young people in low-income households.

Charities are urged to prioritise support for such measures as part of their green strategies and be more involved in educating young people who are “unprepared for climate change”, warns NPC, “despite the stereotype of young people being highly activist”. This includes offering support on staying safe in heatwaves and floods.

NPC also found that “a significant section of young people are poorly informed” about climate change:

• 25% of young people aged 16-24 do not believe that climate change is not caused by human activity
• 30% say climate change is not a problem that is relevant to them
• 33% think that the onus should be on other countries rather than the UK to play its role in addressing the problem

NPC adds: “Young people in low-income households and/or from ethnic minority groups are more likely to be living in housing poorly adapted to our changing climate, more likely to be disproportionately affected by air pollution, less likely to have access to green spaces that help to keep homes cooler, and less likely to bounce back easily after extreme weather events.

“Young people in urban areas are particularly vulnerable. Young people in low-income households and from ethnic minority groups will therefore benefit from better policy to improve access to green and blue spaces, housing, air quality, public transport and encourage diverse representation in green jobs, especially in urban areas.”