A Climate for Change highlights the issues which are of most concern to Australian children and young people broadly under the banners of wellbeing, safety, learning, equality and the environment. One of the most consistent issues raised, however, was that of climate change.

Key Findings:

• The vast majority (86 per cent), view climate change as some form of threat to their safety, with 59 per cent considering it to be a significant or large threat. Only 14 per cent consider it to be no threat at all.
• The vast majority also hold the view that climate change caused by human activity is not only affecting our planet now, but that these effects will get worse in the future. Three quarters (73 per cent) consider that climate change caused by human activity is affecting the world “a lot” now, while 84 per cent think it will affect the world “a lot” in the future.
• Three quarters (75 per cent) want Australia to be taking action on climate change, mostly because they want Australia to lead by example and play our part in helping the world to stop its worsening effects (61 per cent). Others (14 per cent) admit they may not definitively know whether climate change is real, but if action results in a cleaner planet, we will be better off in the long run. Just over one tenth agree with some commonly proposed counter views on taking action, with 8 per cent considering that taking action would have too many negative impacts on our economy and 5 per cent taking the view that we are too small a nation to make a difference. Only 4 per cent either do not accept that climate change is real or that it is caused by human activity.