October Newsletter

30 Oct 2026

This newsletter was first sent by email to the members of our Research Network. If you would like to be part of it, sign up here.

October Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the October 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 November 13th with ‘Research Network Newsletter’ in the subject line. This newsletter is prepared by YCJ Postdoctoral Researcher Florencia Paz Landeira.

Project News

Online Book Launch: The Rights of Children and Youth in the Climate Crisis. Our online book launch has been rescheduled to Thursday 22 October, 12:30 Irish time. Chaired by Prof. Aoife Daly, the authors will be in conversation with Mary Robinson. YCJ Youth Advisory Board members Niamh Purcell, Sumaya Mohammed and Emilia Becerra will put questions to the panel. The book is fully open access.

Publication now open access: Challenging anthropocentrism in human rights: children's relational approach to the right to a healthy environment by YCJ doctoral researcher Emily Murray in the Journal of Human Rights and the Environment is now open access.

ZILAS Winter Lecture Series 2026/27: Environmental Justice in Latin America. YCJ postdoctoral researcher Dr Florencia Paz Landeira opens the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt's Center for Latin American Studies (ZILAS) lecture series on 21 October with Horizons of Justice: Children, Youth and Political Agency in the Climate Crisis. The series runs Wednesdays from 18:00 to 19:30 (German time) until 16 December and are open to the public. All lectures are in English, hybrid in Eichstätt and via Zoom.

Call for participants: art-based workshops in Cork (ages 13–17). As preparations for our Ireland case study get underway, we invite young people aged 13–17 from the Cork City area to join a series of art-based participatory workshops at UCC in April and May 2027. The series ends with an exhibition of their work on Saturday 15 May. We are currently running these workshops in Argentina, and have completed the cycle in Canada, Nepal and online. Participants will explore how the climate crisis connects to their own rights. [I’ll add the link when it’s ready.] Questions: Prof. Aoife Daly (aoife.daly@ucc.ie).

Climate Facts

Climate Fact: The soggy superheroes under our feet. Peatlands, like the bogs Ireland is famous for, cover only about 3% of the world's land. Yet they store twice as much carbon as all the world's forests put together! In their wet, spongy soil, old plants never fully rot, so carbon stays locked away for thousands of years. When bogs are drained or dug up, that carbon escapes into the air and heats the planet. Keeping them wet keeps it safely in the ground. One easy way to help is to choose peat-free compost for your plants.

Youth Climate Applications/Litigation

Roberts v. Board of Oil, Gas, and Mining – On 5 October, the Utah Supreme Court heard oral arguments on whether ten youth plaintiffs challenging 364 state-issued oil and gas permits must have their case moved to a new three-judge panel. The Legislature created that panel partway through their case. District court proceedings are paused until the Court rules.

Suncor Energy Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County – The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on 5 October on whether Boulder County's climate deception suit against Suncor and ExxonMobil can proceed in state court. Eight Boulder-area young people filed an amicus brief with Our Children's Trust and pediatric climate health expert Dr Lisa Patel. They argue that states and local governments have the authority and the duty to protect children from fossil fuel harm.

United States v. California Air Resources Board – Fourteen youth from California and Hawai'i appealed to the Ninth Circuit on 6 October after a federal district court denied their motion to intervene in the federal government's bid to strip states of power to regulate vehicle pollution. On the same day it denied the youth, the court allowed fossil fuel industry groups to intervene.

Dunn v. Wisconsin Public Service Commission – Fifteen youth plaintiffs asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court on 12 October to bypass the Court of Appeals, where a decision could take an estimated 587 days. The case challenges laws that bar the state's Public Service Commission from considering greenhouse gas emissions when approving fossil fuel plants. It was dismissed in April 2026 as a nonjusticiable political question.

Open Calls and Events

Online Book Launch: The Rights of Children and Youth in the Climate Crisis
Thursday 22 October, 12:30 Irish time, online. A conversation with Mary Robinson on children and youth as rights-holders and actors in the climate crisis. The book is fully open access.

ZILAS Winter Lecture Series 2026/27: Environmental Justice in Latin America
Seven lectures on food, water, infrastructure, extractivism, youth political agency and more. Wednesdays, 21 October to 16 December, 18:00–19:30 German time. All lectures are in English and hybrid (Eichstätt and Zoom).

Imagining Children's Rights Otherwise: Critical Scholarship and Decolonial Practice
International conference, 2–4 June 2027, Trondheim, Norway (NTNU, University of KwaZulu-Natal and PUC-Rio). Children, youth, scholars, practitioners and policymakers are invited to submit papers, panels, posters or creative and intergenerational formats, including on climate injustice. The conference particularly encourages Global South participation, and participants from low- and middle-income countries pay no fee. Abstracts are due 1 November 2026.

Publications

Article: Disjuncture by default: Arrhythmic life-worlds and intergenerational injustice, by Rebecca Collins.

Article: Climate change education for children: a critical integrative review and the participation–emotion–resilience (PER) framework, by Jane Spiteri

Article: Impacts of climate change on the legal rights of Nigerian children: comparative insights from international jurisdiction, by Chinazor Queen Umeobika & Linda Amarachi Oti-Onyema

Article: Integrating child and youth mental health in climate adaptation plans: insights and recommendations from a rapid scoping review and knowledge user engagement, by Samayaa Seepaul, Lila Pavey, Sarah Blades & Brittany V. Barber.

Article: Narrating Climate Futures for Children: Ecopedagogy, Environmental Citizenship, and Ideological Framing in Digital Climate Stories by International Organizations, by Nihal A. Adil & Riham Fouad M. Ahmed.

Article: International Obligations of States to Protect the Rights of the Child in the Face of Climate Change, by Mohammadmehdi Seyed Nasseri & Mohammad Mahdi Meghdadi

Article: The Silent Crises: Climate Change and Its Adverse Impacts on Children’s Education in Pakistan: A Qualitative Study of District Charsadda, by Bahadar Sher, Prof. Dr. Amanullah Khan, Dr. Liaqat Ali & Syeda Khabiba Ali Kakakhel

Article: Institutional betrayal in climate action: Youth experiences and future pathways, by Grace Nosek, Laura Tozer, John Pierre Craig, Michael Classens, Aden Fisher, Ibtesaam Mohamed Afroz Moosa, Erum Naqvi, Zoha Sojoudi, Ayesha Ali, Imara Ajani Rolston & Eve Tuck

Report: An Analysis of Climate Justice in the South African School Curriculum, by Susan Cohen (UNESCO).

Report: Climate-Proofing the South African Basic Education System: The Legal Obligations of The South African Government, by Motheo Brodie & Cecile De Villiers (UNESCO).