Newsletters
November Newsletter
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Hello and welcome to the November edition of our Youth Climate Justice Research Network newsletter! COP is in full swing and some children and youth are present and using their voices, but in our research some say they wish that children’s rights were more present there, they wish they had more support and resources, and they want to be at negotiating tables.
This network is supported by the Youth Climate Justice project at University College Cork. The project is led by Prof. Aoife Daly and funded by the European Research Council (ERC). For more about the project and our team, feel free to visit our website. You can also watch the recordings of our online research forums here!
If you have any events, publications, or opportunities you’d like featured in the December edition, please email youthclimatejustice@ucc.ie by December 10th with ‘Research Network Newsletter’ in the subject line.
Project News
Media Interviews: The YCJ project recently published our research with children/youth and COP. Advisory board member Sumaya Mohammed and PI Aoife Daly were interviewed by the Wire about this. You can listen to it here.
A Conversation about COP: The recently published research with children/youth and COP was also picked up by The Conversation in a piece called COP30: Children and young people at climate talks: Seen, photographed, but not allowed to decide anything”.
YCJ Young Advisory Team co-creates a Zine: Over the past year, the YCJ Young Advisory Team (YAT) has co-created a ‘Zine’. Inside this 12-page booklet, you'll learn about each young advisor and the incredible work they do across the globe. Click here to check it out!
Our easy read materials: Did you know that our website is packed with easy read versions of important youth climate cases, and academic journal articles? Find them HERE!
Social media: Do you follow us? Catch up with project news as it happens by following us on:
LinkedIn - youthclimatejustice@ucc.ie; X (Twitter) - youthclimatejustice@ucc.ie; and
Instagram - youthclimatej
Youth Climate Applications/Litigation
Greenpeace v Norway Case - October 28, 2025 – The European Court of Human Rights issued a decision concluding nine years of litigation in a landmark case brought by Greenpeace Nordic, Nature and Youth, and individuals who argued that the granting of oil exploration licenses in the Barents Sea violated Norway’s legal obligations to prevent human rights harms.
Greenpeace v. Norway Case – November 14, 2025 – The Borgarting Court of Appeal ruled in favour of Greenpeace Nordic and Nature and Youth, declaring that Norway’s approvals for the Tyrving, Breidablikk, and Yggdrasil oil fields were unlawful due to inadequate assessment of global climate impacts. The environmental impact assessments were invalidated, and the state was ordered to conduct new evaluations within six months, marking a major legal victory for climate advocates.
Climate and environment facts!
In each newsletter, we try to include some climate facts for our younger audience😊
OCEAN PLASTIC Did you know that by 2050 there could be more plastic in the sea than fish? We need to clean up our oceans! The WWF says: “Say no to single use, Say no to plastic, plastic-free routine, Bring a bottle, Reusable bags, bulk buy, and try litter picking”. Read more HERE. By Cian, age 12.
Open Calls and Events
The Youth Climate Justice project, with the Centre for Child Law (University of Pretoria), is hosting a hybrid conference, “The State of Youth and Children’s Rights in the Climate Crisis”. South African child and youth climate advocates from diverse backgrounds will join us in Pretoria in person on 21 November 2025, while the YCJ Youth Advisory Team, representing communities worldwide, will participate online. The programme includes a keynote address by Ayakha Melithafa, Youth Commissioner in the Presidential Climate Commission for South Africa, and one of the petitioners in Sacchi v Argentina, the child-led human rights complaint brought to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2019. Participating organisations include the youth-led African Climate Alliance, one of the plaintiffs in the successful #CancelCoal case, which set the precedent that important coal-related decisions cannot be made without consulting children and youth. Dzumo la Mupo, an organisation fostering indigenous knowledge systems in ecological governance, will lead us in a cultural diversity Ecocalendar mapping exercise. Other participants include Save the Children South Africa’s Child Human Rights Defenders, Young Voices for Climate Justice, the Presidential Climate Commission’s Youth Caucus, and Black Girls Rising. The conference aims to give a platform exclusively for child and youth voices to explore the barriers and opportunities for better access to justice and participation in the climate crisis.
An Ecocalendar made by a Dzomo la Mupo youth group in Venda, South Africa, showing their understanding of cultural biodiversity:
Socio-Legal Studies Association Conference 2026: The Call for Abstracts for the SLSA 2026 Conference at the University of Sussex is open. Papers are welcomed which explore children’s rights from all methodological, ethical, theoretical and normative perspectives at local, national, regional or international levels. The deadline to submit a paper proposal is Thursday 18 December 2025.
Publications
Article: Children at the lekgotla: African child-led litigation for remedies in the climate crisis by Liesl Muller.
Article: Justicia Ambiental Intergeneracional by Florencia Paz Landeira.
Article: View of Big Mac and Unicorns: Exploring a child rights-based transformative ESD approach for early childhood education and care with young children and ECEC practitioners by Muireann Ranta.
Article: Human rights and climate change: Conceptualising a children’s rights-based approach to the climate crisis in Africa by Nimrod Muhumuza and Thabang Ramakhula.
Article: Climate change and displaced children in Africa: A dual challenge to a sustainable future by Gabriel Ajabu Mastaki.
Article: The girl child and climate justice in South Africa and Zimbabwe: A comparative by Lydia T Chibwe, Olayinka O Adeniyi & Ashiella Musindo.
Article: Beyond borders and time: The adequacy of international human rights law in establishing legal responsibility for harm caused by the climate crisis on African children by Samrawit Getaneh Damtew.
Article: Revisiting Chiara Sacchi & Others v Argentina & Others from the perspective of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child: Would extraterritoriality support the climate change agenda? by Robert Doya Nanima.
Article: Children on the move: Climate migration and ecocide in Africa by Vedant Gupte.
Article: Climate change adaptation law and policy in Benin: Towards gender-equitable climate action by Marus Gbomagba & Michael Addaney.
Article: Climate change, human rights and the Nigerian child by Eghosa O Ekhator & Brown Etareri Umukoro.
Blog: The Injustice No One Talks About Enough by YCJ Young Advisor Guardian of Change.
Blog: Agency, Access and Accountability: Local Learnings from a Global Youth Protest Movement by Jennifer Lauren and Valery Molay.
Article: Being able to breathe again: Impact of climate change on human mobility in Sub-Saharan Africa by Nzabirinda Etienne, Nkurunziza Joseph, and Mugenzi Martin.
FEATURE
This week we are featuring a piece written by the UK Youth Delegation to COP30, organised by the Future Leaders Network
As the UK Youth Delegation to COP30, organised by the Future Leaders Network, we want to make sure young people are not just present at the conference, but adding their voices to the policy-making conversations that result from it. Our work is built around three main goals: empowerment, resilience and global solidarity. We’re calling for every young person in the UK to have access to strong climate and nature education, and for youth voices to be given a real place in climate decision-making. At home, we’re also pushing for a National Climate and Nature Service that would create meaningful green jobs, restore ecosystems and help communities build resilience. Internationally, we advocate for fair and practical renewable energy partnerships between the UK and climate-vulnerable nations. Together, these goals reflect our belief that climate action should be intertwined with collaboration and care. We want to demonstrate the ideas, energy, and determination that young people possess to turn ambition into real progress. This mission extends beyond policy, it’s about safeguarding places we love, engaging with and supporting our local, national and international communities, and contributing to a fairer, more sustainable world for everyone. To read our proposals in full, please visit our Linktree: https://linktr.ee/COP30YouthDelegation?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQM
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