By Susmita Choudhury, James Balzer, Hikmah Ubaidillah, Husnul Maad, Keeva Duffey, Russell Dowling, Khadiga Alsharif, and Amelia Andrews, Asia Region, ChildFund International

2024 marked the hottest year ever recorded, exceeding the critical 1.5°C threshold set by the Paris Agreement. A review by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), 2020, reveals that extreme weather and climate-related disasters have claimed over 410,000 lives in the past decade.

In Asia and the Pacific, heatwaves are especially lethal in regions with high humidity levels. Extreme heat poses severe risks to human health, especially for vulnerable populations such as children, young people, and women.  Around 1 billion children reside in one of the 33 countries categorized as “extremely high-risk” due to climate impacts. Data specific to Indonesia highlights significant risks for children and youth and ranks 46th out of 163 countries, classifying it as a high-risk nation for children. With cascading effects often overlooked, the impact of rising temperatures extends far beyond immediate health concerns, affecting everything from mental health to education and child protection. Addressing extreme heat with an inclusive, long-term approach is crucial, particularly when involving the younger generation in climate governance.

The Hidden Impacts of Extreme Heat on Children and Youth

Extreme heat effects are not limited to direct health outcomes of children and young people such as dehydration, heat exhaustion, and heatstroke but also compounded by long term consequences often overlooked. Research highlights significant risks to child development, including health, safety, education, and livelihoods around the ecosystem of a child.  Addressing these challenges requires a multi-sectoral approach to protect children’s rights and promote their well-being. By understanding and addressing the intersecting issues of physical safety, mental health, gender, socioeconomic inequities, and family dynamics, it is possible to mitigate the effects of extreme heat on children and youth.

Integrating Youth into heat governance and climate action

Involving young people in climate governance is essential for achieving “thermal justice”[1] – ensuring the benefits of heat adaptation policies are equitably shared across generations – meaning all generations in the present and the future. Deliberative youth engagement is crucial to shaping policies ensuring structural changes, through processes of “downstream deliberation.”[2] Young people must not only be seen as stakeholders but also as key drivers of change in addressing the impacts of extreme heat.

The solutions to extreme heat need to be deliberated and implemented from a bottom-up perspective, as a way to complement top-down governance. This requires active efforts from civil society, who can act as convenors and mediators for participatory policy design involving youth.[3]

For example, Indonesia faces a multitude of barriers to govern extreme heat more effectively. The country faces many social and environmental challenges, compounded by lackluster infrastructure, such as poor-quality housing and ineffective sanitation systems. Among these more immediate challenges, which have more political attention, addressing extreme heat in a focused, long-term and coherent manner can be difficult. This undermines the capacity for intergenerational fairness to be integrated into extreme heat planning, which is based on a participatory governance approach. The current youth engagement regarding environmental issues is susceptible to efforts from different levels of government that hardly lead to tangible policy improvements.[4] Likewise, the impartiality of youth deliberation is questionable, as governments typically skew their focus groups to youth whose political perspectives align with the incumbent administrations.[5]

An initiative in Indonesia, implemented by local partner Youth Voice Now (YVN) Sikka, offers an inspiring model for integrating youth in climate action. YVN empowers young people to lead action research, advocate for policy change, and collaborate with local governments to drive meaningful solutions. This participatory approach ensures that youth are actively engaged in both identifying issues and influencing decision-making through evidence-based advocacy. YVN forms council of young people to directly contribute to policy decisions and collaborate with government on projects like tree planting and climate advocacy. Their efforts have led to YVN being invited as a Youth Advisory Body to strengthen youth involvement in governance.

The involvement of youth in formal government planning processes, such as the Musrenbang forums, highlights the potential for solutions driven by young people to be included in policy development. This ensures that youth concerns are considered in the efforts to combat extreme heat. The Sikka Government has acknowledged YVN for its effective work in engaging youth in the decision-making process.. They received the Kalpataru Environmental Award for planting 1,000 trees and promoting climate action.

Based on the work of ChildFund International Indonesia and Youth Voice Now (Sikka) meaningful child and youth engagement in heat governance in Asia Pacific should consider:

Integrate Mental Health into Climate Strategies: Policymakers and communities must embed mental health considerations into climate adaptation strategies and policies. This involves mitigating heat-related risks through enhanced support systems for affected children and youth, mental health services, fostering resilience through education and community-based initiatives, and investing in vital infrastructure such as cooling centers and green spaces.

Strengthen Child Protection Measures: Protecting children from the severe effects of heat and climate-related disasters through targeted child protection measures that understand and integrate heat and climate-related child protection risks and stressors while creating child-friendly spaces and providing access to trauma-informed care for children.

Youth-Driven Solutions: Encouraging and amplifying youth led community-based solutions focusing on urban greening and heat-resilient infrastructure. Youth can use media platforms to raise awareness about heat-related risks and prevention strategies, creating a knowledgeable and proactive community.

Collaboration with Governance Bodies: Youth participation in local government planning forums ensures their voices influence policies addressing heat risks, making governance more inclusive and responsive to youth concerns.

Advocacy: Youth participation in policy decisions urging governments to reduce the impacts of extreme heat on vulnerable communities. Advocacy for increasing public financing for heat adaptation measures, strengthening communities’ ability to cope with extreme heat and its impacts.

Moving Forward

As we look toward 2025 and beyond, integrating the perspectives of youth into heat governance and climate action in the Asia Pacific region will be essential. Children and young people are among those most affected by the long-term impacts of climate change, yet they also have the potential to drive meaningful and sustainable solutions. By amplifying their voices, we can ensure that climate policies are equitable, inclusive, and truly transformative. g

References:

1. Ufaira, R, Amir, S, Indraprahasta, G & Nastiti, A (2023). “Living in a Hot City: Thermal Justice Through Green Open Space Provision”. Frontiers in Human Dynamics. 5, doi: 10.3389/fhumd.2023.1237515.
2. Boswell, J. (2016). Deliberating downstream: Countering democratic distortions in the policy process. Perspectives on Politics, 14(3), 724-737.
3. Strachwitz, R.G. (2022). Civil Society as an Agent of Change. In: Glückler, J., Meyer, HD., Suarsana, L. (eds) Knowledge and Civil Society. Knowledge and Space, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71147-4_3
4. Siagian, C., Sari, W. L., Rahmi, M. A., Kartaadipoetra, F. W., Lisan, I. H., Tieken, S., Robby, M. B., Matahelemual, G. J., Ufaira, R., Nisa, S. A., & Swarnata, A. (2024). Moving towards just climate governance: Understanding climate change from the standpoint of marginalized children and young people in Indonesia. PUSKAPA-ANU. https://puskapa.org/en/blog/publication/6375/
5. PUSKAPA (2023). “Understanding Youth Engagement in Climate and Environmental Issues in Indonesia.” Accessed 26 July 2024. https://puskapa.org/en/blog/publication/6151/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this piece are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of AIDMI.