More than 40 children and young people from Australia, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Tonga jointly urged the Federal Government to demonstrate stronger climate action and leadership ahead of COP31.
Australia’s bid to co-host COP came with a clear aim of placing the Pacific at the centre of global climate negotiations and, as lead negotiator, Australia holds the position to make that a reality. But children and young people from across the Pacific and Australia have challenged Australia’s track record on climate action and demanded greater accountability from decision makers.
“Yet this climate leadership sits uneasily beside Australia’s continued role as a major fossil-fuel producer and emitter in the region,” writes 26-year-old Chloe from Vanuatu in the letter. Just last week, the New South Wales Independent Planning Commission has greenlit an expansion of the largest coal mine project in the state’s history.
Hannah, 17, from Queensland, spoke of ecosystems collapsing and species disappearing in her contribution to the letter, saying “we need to be protecting the voiceless.” Stella, 17, from Victoria, said she has seen summers get hotter and asked the question that hangs over her whole generation: “But when will it become unbearable?”
Under international law and the Paris Agreement, governments are legally bound to protect children’s rights through decisive climate action. Global temperatures are set to rise above the 1.5°C threshold, likely within the next few years, pushing climate risks and impacts to increasingly dangerous heights, according to the UN’s Limiting Overshoot report released last month.
Climate researchers are also warning that, “the developing 2026 El Niño event is projected to be the strongest in at least 1,000 years,” and that more than 450,000 people are projected to die from the additional heat brought by the super El Niño by February. Even before confirmation of this year’s El Niño, the impacts of the climate crisis were being felt in the Pacific.
In Papua New Guinea, Jenny, 14 said during dry spells, there is no drinking water at school, so she is forced to stay home. In Tonga, Uinita, 13, described fruit bearing “off season” or coming out “small and deformed”, with households increasingly relying on rice, bread and noodles as home-grown food becomes less reliable.
Save the Children Vanuatu Next Gen Youth Ambassador, 17-year-old Haruka, who contributed to the letter and attended Pre-Cop31 Australia Pacific Youth Climate Dialogue last week, said “I think that it’s important for the perspectives of young people from the Pacific and Australia to be heard at events like Pre-COP and COP because ultimately these are the spaces where decisions about climate change are being made and decisions about our futures and the world that we are going to inherit and especially for us in the Pacific.”
Save the Children Pacific Regional Director, Kim Koch, said the Australian Government has recognised the threat climate change poses to the region, through its commitment to championing Pre-COP in the Pacific and taking on the lead negotiator role at COP31 in Türkiye, but recognition only goes so far.
“These children and young people are not asking Australia to fix the climate crisis alone. They are asking Australia, as the co-host of COP31 and as a good neighbour in the Pacific, to act in line with the scale of the challenge, to honour its commitments and its responsibilities, and to give them a meaningful say on the issues that affect them most,” she said.
“The Australian Government has a duty to listen to the voices of these children and young people, as well as champion their calls and deliver climate justice for them, as they have been promised time and time again.”
In the letter, Save the Children Australia and the children and young people are calling on the Federal Government to:
Match Australia’s commitments to the Pacific with ambitious action at home, including by ensuring that new fossil fuel project approvals are consistent with efforts to limit global warming to 1.5°C, and that Australia is doing everything within its power to keep this goal within reach.
Back the practical priorities Pacific communities keep asking for. This includes providing Australia’s fair share of climate finance, at least A$11 billion annually between 2025–2030, rising to A$14 billion annually by 2035, with a significant portion directed to Pacific communities, to help them adapt to the challenges of the climate crisis and strengthen water security, resilient agriculture, coastal protection and disaster preparedness.
Put children at the centre of climate decisions. Their voices should shape the policies that affect their lives, and their rights to health, food, education and a healthy environment should be treated as obligations to uphold, not aspirations to work towards.
