04/12/2023
Alana representatives delivered a manifesto to President Lula during COP28. The document calls for children to be heard, included and centralized in actions to fight climate change
Over the weekend, Alana representatives handed President Lula and Secretary of State Marina Silva, from the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, a manifesto calling for a Children’s COP to be held in 2025, when Brazil will host the United Nations (UN) Climate Conference.
“We can no longer ignore the fact that 1 billion children in the world, including at least 40 million Brazilian girls and boys, are having their lives affected by extreme events such as floods, prolonged droughts, pollution and heatwaves. The time has come to recognize and include children’s voices in CAP, responding to their pain, especially that of the most vulnerable: girls, black children, children descending from afro-Brazilian slaves who escaped their plantations, riverside community children, children from slums and children with disabilities,” says the document.
Today, worldwide, more than one in four deaths of children under 5 are attributable to unhealthy environments, according to UNICEF. They bear no responsibility for climate change, but they are the most impacted and are not heard or prioritized in the COP agendas and negotiations that will define their lives.
In 31 years of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, so far, no robust decision focused on protecting the rights and best interests of children and adolescents has been adopted. The hope is that Brazil can change this story, setting an example to the world if it commits to making Article 227 of the Federal Constitution effective, which states that it is everyone’s duty – the state, families and society – to ensure the rights of children with absolute priority, including the right to nature and to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment.
In this sense, the manifesto calls for COP30, which will be held in 2025 in Belém, State of Pará, to leave a legacy for present and future generations of children and their families, by guaranteeing the safe participation of boys and girls in the negotiations and promoting a Children’s Action Plan (CAP) that establishes objectives and proposals that take into account the peculiarities and vulnerabilities of children in the climate crisis.
The Alana Institute, in alliance with UNICEF, has already brought the voices of 25 children from 12 countries around the world to COP28. In the videos showing their testimonies, they call for immediate action from leaders and negotiators and tell how extreme weather events have affected their lives. The films opened several of the COP28 plenaries, such as the Leaders’ Event: Youth and Education – The Latent Force of Climate Action, which brought together global leaders. Watch the videos here.
