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Children’s Petition to the United Nations Secretary-General to Declare a Climate Emergency - petition

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On November 10, 2021, 14 youth climate activists from around the world (the same petitioners from <a href="https://climatecasechart.com/non-us-case/sacchi-et-al-v-argentina-et-al/">Sacchi v. Argentina</a>) submitted a petition to United Nations (U.N.) Secretary-General António Guterres asking him to declare a climate emergency. The petitioners rely on the impacts of climate change on human rights, specifically the rights of children as recognized by the U.N. and its several agencies, including the recent decision of the Committee on the Rights of the Child. The petitioners call on the Secretary-General and the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) to declare a systemwide, Level 3 climate emergency at the U.N. The petitioners further encourage the IASC and the Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) to mobilize a U.N. Comprehensive Response to the Climate Emergency and activate a crisis management team to oversee immediate and comprehensive global action on climate. 

Declaring a Level 3 Emergency, the U.N.’s highest designation, would mean placing climate action at the top of the agenda for each U.N. agency. This would ensure that U.N. resources and personnel can be deployed rapidly to dispatch aid and scientific expertise to countries most vulnerable to climate disasters. It would also ensure that the U.N. can help countries meet their emission reduction pledges on an urgent, emergency basis. The petitioners assert that a U.N. Comprehensive Response to the Climate Emergency is necessary (i) as international human rights law requires states to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions that have transboundary effects, (ii) to address the fundamental inequities of climate change, and (iii) to provide a legal response to the youth and fulfill the U.N. Charter’s promise to protect succeeding generations. 

According to the petitioners, the U.N.’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic provides the blueprint for climate action. In the face of the pandemic, the Secretary-General and the IASC mobilized a U.N. Comprehensive Response to the global health crisis and activated a U.N. Crisis Management Team. The petitioners argue that the climate emergency warrants a similar response as a threat as serious and urgent as the global pandemic. 

Children’s Petition to the United Nations Secretary-General to Declare a Climate Emergency

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

A long-lived, colourless gas, chiefly emitted from fossil fuel combustion, deforestation and cement production.

Slow onset events evolve gradually from incremental changes over many years or from increased frequency or intensity of recurring events. As defined in the Cancun Adaptation Framework (2010), slow onset events include risks and impacts from rising temperatures, desertification, biodiversity loss, land and forest degradation, glacial retreat, ocean acidification, sea level rise, and salinization.

People who have left their homes, whether through force, voluntarily, or a mixture of both

Social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced

People with different national or cultural traditions from the dominant population

A ban is a legal action that prevents the sale or supply of a product or service, or that recalls a product from the market. Examples are bans on SF6, greenwashing, fossil fuel advertisement or single-use plastics.

A drought is an extended period of unusually dry weather marked by a significant and sustained lack of precipitation, falling below a specific threshold over a large area for more than a month

Activities involving the catching, processing, and selling of fish for food, recreation, and industry.

Hot temperature extremes are daily maximum temperatures  that were exceeded on average once in a decade or once in 50 years, and includes heatwaves.

Air pollution involves harmful contaminants in the air, affecting both indoor and outdoor environments. It can lead to health issues like respiratory diseases and heart problems, and climate impacts such as global warming. Pollutants can damage plants, trees, habitats, and water bodies like rivers and lakes.

The release of heat-trapping gases, primarily from human activities such as burning fossil fuels, agriculture and industry.

Extreme weather refers to events where a weather variable exceeds (or falls below) a threshold. Meaning it is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern.

This sector involves activities that impart knowledge and skills to individuals, including formal schooling, vocational training and educational support.

People who are less able to respond to the effects of climate change due to having limited financial or physical assets

Children’s Petition to the United Nations Secretary-General to Declare a Climate Emergency - petition

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector