In a report published on Wednesday 20 November, the Ombudsman calls on the government to act on the impacts of climate change on children. “The fact is known: if children are the least responsible for environmental damage, they are the most exposed to it and the first victims”insists Claire Hédon in this document published on the occasion of the International Day of the Rights of the Child.
“These risks manifest themselves in all their living spaces: in their immediate surroundings – their home or place of living –, in all the places that host them and in outdoor spaces”adds the representative of the independent authority. On a global scale, “more than 99% of them are exposed to a climatic and environmental risk factor” AND “A quarter of the deaths of children under 5 years of age are directly related to pollution phenomena”highlights Mme Hedon.
But despite the“urgency to act”the public policies implemented “they do not sufficiently take into account the particular vulnerability of children and the growing consequences of the environmental crisis underline the increasing burden that future generations will have to bear”we can read in the report.
Given this observation, the Defender of Rights calls on public authorities to act to “guarantee present children and future generations the satisfaction of their essential needs: to breathe, drink and eat healthily, and to live safely in dignified conditions that respect their well-being and health”.
It makes twenty recommendations, including accelerating the renovation of school buildings and all places that welcome children or even generalizing, in hospitals, consultations dedicated to prenatal exposure to pesticides.
The independent authority also requests “Rethinking public spaces from a child’s perspective” reduce their exposure to pollution, in particular by generalizing the pedestrianization of areas near educational and extracurricular establishments and developing alternative transportation to the car.
It also considers it necessary to think about adapting the school day and the school holiday calendar to “take better account of climate change and its differentiated effects at the national level”.
