Young people risk becoming passive bystanders of  climate change according to Victor Bernhardtz, co-author of this year’s Youth Supplement to the State of the World Population.

Young people are standing at the frontier of climate change. They see it coming, both in terms of early signs in their own lives of what is to come, and through analysing and drawing conclusions from the facts presented by a concerned community of researchers.

They speak up.  Sadly, the listeners are still too few.

The current climate change debate is focused on the future, on projections, and how we should act if any of the presented projections develop into reality. While these discussions are essential, we should also ask ourselves what needs to happen urgently. At the moment, my impression is that we spend more time discussing the coming population of the world, than discussing how the current population can be involved.

Young people are a good example. Today, the largest generation in history of people aged 10 to 25, some 1.5 billion, live in the world. Many of them live in cities or are moving to cities. Many live in developing countries, and will thus be more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. From this generation, many champions for a more sustainable way of life have already risen, and more will follow.

In paradox, young people’s involvement in efforts to mitigate climate change, and adapting to it’s impact, is not a hot topic. Instead the same chatter about “how young people are the future”, that I learned to despise at age 10, is still occupying a lot of space in the debate.

This year’s Youth Supplement to the State of the World Population is titled At the Frontier and shows examples of how young people are not ildly standing by and waiting for future climate change to happen. They engage, given that waiting is not an option. For several of them, options are few, as events mentioned in climate change projections, such as more severe weather and tougher conditions for farming, are already unfolding, affecting their lives.

Young people’s involvement in meeting the test that climate change puts us to is vital for several reasons:

Firstly, we simply cannot exclude such a large group of people, if we are serious in our ambitions to turn the tide. Not tapping into the resource of young people is foolish. Secondly, young people will always be the best experts on youth. They know better than anyone else how their lives are being affected, and what they need in order to improve their situation. Thirdly, young people must learn how to deal hands-on with mitigation and adaptation as soon as possible. Otherwise, they will not be prepared to handle the climate change impacts that lie in store.

Our responsibility as a global community is to make sure there are options for young people, both regarding sexuality and reproduction, as well as opportunities to take up the call of the young climate change champions. Young people are without a doubt well informed of what must change, what they need is access to the tools required to make that change.

The opinions expressed in this text are those of the author.