Part III: Ways to advocate for children before, during and after COP30
African Children Climate Summit – September 2025. Credit: Top Africa News
Call to action for COP30
Are you attending COP30? Is someone you know planning to go? Have you or they made any plans to advocate for children at COP30? If not, with only a few days left, you might feel it’s too late to start now. However, it’s never too late to take action. This is a call to action for all stakeholders attending COP30 and those engaged in climate action.
Climate change impacts everyone and everywhere. But children are disproportionately affected by it. You can find out more by checking out Part I: Their lives, their story and Part II: Climate negotiations & decision making of this series. In this final part, we will think about how we can bring the voices of children and ensure their rights are included in climate discussion before, during and after COP.
Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Children states that children have the right to express their views and have their views given due weight. The Lundy Model of child participation developed by academic Laura Lundy, Professor of international children’s rights at the School of Education at the Queen’s University of Belfast, provides a way of conceptualising a child’s right to participation, as laid down in Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. (Lundy, 2007) The Lundy Model has four elements which have a rational chronological order:
• SPACE: Children must be given safe, inclusive opportunities to form and express their view
• VOICE: Children must be facilitated to express their view
• AUDIENCE: The view must be listened to.
• INFLUENCE: The view must be acted upon, as appropriate.
This model should be our guiding principle to the following recommendations.
Before COP
- Conduct a consultation with children in your community. If resources are limited for in-person consultations, you could try online, preferably separate for girls to better understand their needs.
- Check consultation documents with children and policy briefings by organisations to better understand what the children’s priorities and demands are. Here are some consultation documents and policy briefings that include the demands of children and girls for COP30. Children Climate Summit Declaration and Call to Action | World Vision International, Youth Declaration by the She Leads Climate Cohort, Unicef COP30 policy briefing, and “We Are Not Heard”: Youth Demand Climate Action at COP30 | Plant-for-the-Planet Blog are great resource.
- Before COP, connect with other COP delegates and work together to advocate for children.
During COP
- Always prioritise discussions about children at COP and aim to influence the agenda during both official sessions and informal conversations. Make an effort to share the lived experience and stories of children.
- Post regularly on social media platforms to amplify children’s voices during COP, sharing their demands, messages and stories. This should be done ethically, following organisational policies, in a way to safeguard the children.
- Influence organisers/hosts for formal space at COP specifically designed for children, that means they can participate in safe and meaningful ways.
- Identify opportunities that children could meaningfully participate in discussions and programs during COP30 and create reports and disseminate after to organizations.
- Ensure that children’s rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are highlighted in discussions, in particular Article 3.1 “In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration”, Article 12.1 “States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child” and Article 28.1 “States Parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity.” Decisions have to be made in ways that ensure the best interest of children as they are the most affected by climate change.
After COP
- Make a summary of the outcomes of COP30 related to children’s rights and climate issues. Share this summary with children in a child-friendly way to keep them informed.
- Conduct a post-consultation with children to gather their feedback on the outcomes of COP and how these outcomes impact their lives. Then share the document with policymakers and stakeholders.
- Keep children updated on climate actions through offline or online communication channels and encourage ongoing dialogue.
These are a few possible ways to advocate and think more about children in our climate works. The responsibility lies with us (adults) to ensure that the voices of children are heard, their ideas are represented, and their rights are preserved. Let’s never back down from that one conversation that can affect millions of children’s lives.
Reference
Lundy, L. (2007). ‘Voice’is not enough: conceptualising Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. British educational research journal, 33(6), 927-942.
This piece is the third in a series by Terre des Hommes NL Research Intern, and Climate Justice activist, Ilham Mohammed Ali. She actively participates in various initiatives focused on Climate Action, Gender Equality, and Human Rights in her community, including co-founding one initiative. Find Ilham on LinkedIn.
