Climate change crisis could be called the children’s right crisis. the number of young people, who make their voice heard and strike for their future, is increasing. Why such uprising?

Worldwide many children and teenagers are getting tired of inactions on climate change. Groups of students across America realize that adults and older generations are asleep at the wheel. As those young activists claim, world leaders have failed to proceed climate action. They stopped believing that the political and social institutions will be able to solve the world’s greatest problems.

Driven by the concept that the action leaders take—or do not take— will determine the survival and livelihood for generations to come, millions of these teenagers would set up, build a youth climate movement and strike from their schools, their businesses and their communities saying, “We want action now, and we are not going to stop until we get it!”. 

In 2018, Swedish 15-year-old Greta Thunberg has become an icon of climate activism and has inspired countless other children, teenagers, and young activists around the world. For a long time, Greta has sparked alone a global movement which claimed for greater action from government to get over climate change. Then, millions of young people are marching to join and support her in that fight.

And then, what is “#FridaysForFuture” about and how to ensure it would pass?

#FridaysForFuture is a movement that started in August 2018, after Greta Thunberg and other young activists sat in front of the Swedish parliament every school day for three weeks, to oppose the lack of action on the climate crisis. Now every month, worldwide students go down the streets to demand that politicians achieve more to acknowledge and act upon the reality and severity of climate change. These regular marches have interested more than one million young people in more than 100 countries. As Greta says: “Everybody is welcome. Everybody is needed”.

The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) supports and advocates youth to their governments for their national contexts. As stated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, everyone under the age of 18 has the right to make decisions on processes that impact them, including the public forum to express their views, and support they need to achieve it. Additionally, from time to time, the UNICEF showcases youth initiatives on climate change on their social media channels, followed by more than 20 million people. This is the case of Alexandria Villaseñor, a 14-year-old activist based in New York who is part of #FridaysForFuture.

Sources: United Nations Environment Program, the Washington Post, UNICEF, Earthday