This free course, Climate justice for the next generation, frames global warming and climate change in terms of social justice, human rights and intergenerational equality and emphasises how children and those least responsible for climate change are the ones who suffer its most significant consequences. The course looks at the impact climate change has on children’s rights and considers the role the next generation has as activists and campaigners within their changing environments. It concludes with a look at the contemporary work being done on ‘plastic childhoods’.

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• understand the importance of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)
• recognise the links between children’s rights and climate justice
• understand the impacts of climate change on children and young people and recognise the reasons why they are at the forefront of climate change campaigns
• appreciate the relationship between children and the environment
• understand the idea of ‘plastic childhoods’ and look at the ways that plastics are entangled in children’s lives.