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August Newsletter
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Hello and welcome to the August edition of our Youth Climate Justice Research Network newsletter!
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 next edition, please email youthclimatejustice@ucc.ie by September 11th with ‘Research Network Newsletter’ in the subject line. This newsletter is prepared by YCJ Postdoctoral Researcher Florencia Paz Landeira.
PROJECT NEWS
New publication by Aoife Daly and Lucy Walsh. "Child/youth leadership and climate cases: Postpaternalism in the courts?" is now out in Oñati Socio-Legal Series (27 July 2026). Drawing on 15 child/youth-involved climate cases, the article argues that children's leadership is inherent in their taking of these cases and in how they assert their constitutional and human rights as legal actors — on behalf of all children, or of humanity more broadly. While applications refer significantly to that leadership, judgments and outcomes acknowledge it only rarely. Open access.
YCJ in court for the #CancelCoal appeal in South Africa. On 19 August 2026 the Supreme Court of Appeal heard the government's appeal in Minister of Electricity and Energy v African Climate Alliance and Others (SCA 516/2025), against the 2024 ruling that struck down 1,500 MW of new coal-fired power partly because the Minister failed to consider children's best interests under section 28 of the Constitution. The Minister argues this is an energy matter, not a children's matter; the respondents and the Centre for Child Law argue that children are legitimate political actors whose interests must be central to energy decisions. Liesl Muller, PhD researcher with the project, is part of the Centre for Child Law's legal team and was in court for the hearing. Full case file · Child-friendly summary
YOUTH CLIMATE LITIGATION / APPLICATION
Lighthiser v. Trump (US). On 10 August 2026 the full Ninth Circuit declined to rehear the constitutional climate case brought by 22 young Americans, three weeks after the youth plaintiffs petitioned for en banc review. The denial leaves in place a three-judge panel decision of 2 June that dismissed the case without ruling on the constitutionality of the executive orders or on the harms to the plaintiffs, and which Our Children's Trust describes as the first US circuit court opinion to deny Article III judicial power to review an unconstitutional executive order. The Montana district court had found "overwhelming evidence" of harm and that fossil fuel pollution is driving a "children's health emergency"; the plaintiffs are now assessing next steps. Press release
United States v. California Air Resources Board (US). Fourteen young people from California and Hawai'i filed a motion on 17 August 2026 to intervene as defendants in the federal government's suit seeking to strip CARB of its authority to limit tailpipe pollution — an outcome that would reach every state following California's standards. They argue that states are constitutionally obliged to regulate vehicle pollution to protect children's rights to life, liberty and, for several intervenors, religious freedom, invoking state constitutional and public trust rights alongside the US Constitution. Two intervenors are beneficiaries of the 2024 Navahine v. Hawai'i DOT settlement, which they argue is also at risk; the motion is due to be heard on 24 September 2026. Press release
Reynolds v. Florida Public Service Commission (US). Climate scientists, physicians, children's rights advocates and Florida environmental organisations filed amicus briefs on 6 July 2026 supporting six young Floridians appealing the dismissal of their constitutional climate case, now before the District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District. The lower court had held in January 2026 that the claims were non-justiciable and that the plaintiffs lacked standing. The CLEO Institute brief, joined by eight youth leaders, argues that courts must protect fundamental rights precisely because young people cannot vote or lobby. Press release
Mathur v. Ontario (Canada). On 5 August 2026 the Court of Appeal for Ontario dismissed the youth applicants' motion to reopen their appeal after the province repealed the statutory emissions provisions at issue, holding it premature to treat the remitted questions as moot. The ruling confirms the youth-led case returns to the lower court. CBC News
CLIMATE FACTS
In each newsletter, we try to include some climate facts from/for our younger audience 😊 If you or someone you know would like to contribute, please let us know.
Did you know that a puffin's beak is only bright orange in summer? They shed the colourful outer plates after breeding season and spend the winter with a plain grey bill. Puffins in Ireland and elsewhere in the North Atlantic depend on small fish like sand eels, which are moving north as the sea warms, leaving parents with less food for their chicks. Protecting seabird colonies and the waters they feed in matters just as much as protecting the cliffs they nest on.
OPEN CALLS AND EVENTS
Call for Papers - The Politics of Future-Making: Childhood, Youth and the Global South
BML Munjal University (Delhi NCR, India), 5–6 February 2027, hosted by the Centre for Child and Youth Transitions with the Max Weber Forum for South Asian Studies and Shiv Nadar University. The conference invites papers, panels and creative submissions on children and young people as "future makers", across themes including young people in politics and social movements, geographies of inequality, and rights-based approaches. Abstracts of 300 words due 7 September 2026 to ccyt@bmu.edu.in; PhD students are encouraged to apply and limited travel and accommodation reimbursements are available. More information here.
PUBLICATIONS
Book: Youth and Earth Politics. From Misconceptions to Potential for Synergy, by Amadine Orsini.
Article: Child/youth leadership and climate cases. Postpaternalism in the courts?, by Aoife Daly and Lucy Walsh.
Article: Climate assemblies with children and youth: a systematic literature review of existing experiences and initiatives, by Alison Cantos-Egea & Gisela Cebrián.
Article: School Climate Assemblies in the Socio-Critical Paradigm: Methodological Approach and Key Processes, by Núria Monterde-Miralles, Gisela Cebrián-Bernat & Merce Junyent-Pubill
Article: Youth awareness and perceptions of climate change in Southern Somalia, by Mohamed Muhudin Ali, Ali Ahmed Fodey & Abdikani Yusuf Abdulle.
Article: The Impact of Climate Change on Children's Environmental human rights, by Hossein Kaviar & Farnaz Shirani Bidabadi.
Article: Disconnecting from the Earth? Digital Dependence and the Social Foundations of Youth Climate Action, by Yayun Shen, Chengcheng Ma & Michael Faure.
Article: “Okay tengo estas flores”: Exploring urban multilingual children’s perspectives on nature in cities amidst the climate crisis, by Faythe Beauchemin.
Book chapter: Engineering climate justice for children: Building child-centered adaptation infrastructure, by Gamze Doğdu Yücetürk.
Thesis: Bridging Science and Activism: Investigating the Intersection of Science Education and the Youth-led Climate Movement, by Christina Torres.