The youth climate movement: Out of sight, out of mind? EPC Commentary May 2021.

Viitanen, Sara (2021) The youth climate movement: Out of sight, out of mind? EPC Commentary May 2021. [Policy Paper]

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Abstract

Although the youth climate movement has significantly impacted the EU’s climate action in the past years, the ongoing pandemic hinders the young activists’ possibilities to raise their concerns via on-the-ground protests. The EU must improve its support for the movement by developing its existing participatory tools further and ensure long-term engagement with young citizens. The social distancing measures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are forcing young climate activists to pause their street action. Moreover, as the world fixates on managing the health and economic crises, many young people are worried that climate action is being put on the back burner and their voices easily ignored. As young people will be most affected by climate change, the EU must better support the youth movement. It should ensure that the movement’s demands and needs are being heard and incorporated into EU-level discussions in a systematic and institutionally recognised way. Only through decision-makers’ cooperation with young people can a sustainable and intergenerationally just future be secured.

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