The United Nations recognises that children are among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Children’s physical and mental health, access to education, food security and adequate housing are all compromised by climate change impacts. For First Nations children and children living with disabilities, climate change compounds existing inequalities these groups face.

As the driest inhabited continent in the world, Australia is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events. The Black Summer fires of 2019-20 burned through 17 million hectares of land across the country, exposing the uncertain and hostile future Australian children face. Photographs of young people and their families fleeing the fires were shared around the world. These poignant and heartbreaking scenes have become symbolic of this climate catastrophe.

This report examines how Australia law does and does not protect children from environmental harm, and how Australian legislation is failing to protect a child’s right to a healthy environment. The report investigates international moves to incorporate this right into law showing where Australia should do more. The research also examines recent legal and political examples of young people pushing for change.

The report recommends explicit legislative recognition of the right to a healthy environment. It also recommends changes to Australia’s national environment law to ensure climate change is properly considered and the decline in biodiversity halted.