Today's children are the first generation born into a climate changed Earth

Small children are the most vulnerable to all impacts of global climate change  1. At present and   2. Throughout their lives 

 DECADES OF GOOD UN CLIMATE CHANGE AND CHILD PROTECTION AGREEMENTS ARE HAVING LITTLE TO NO EFFECT

May 2024 Climate Emergency Institute submission to to SB60 (UN Climate Secretariat) for the Expert Dialogue on Children and Climate Change

Only very recently (2023-2024) have climate change and children been formally addressed

2024 Expert dialogue on the disproportionate impacts of climate change on children and relevant policy under UNFCCC

Under the outcome of the first global stocktake (2023), Parties requested the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) to hold an expert dialogue on children and climate change at its 60th session to discuss the disproportionate impacts of climate change on children and relevant policy solutions in this regard. 

Although under the UN children are supposed to be protected from climate change harm in reality they are to this day not being protected. The reality is that 30 years after the UN climate change convention  and more than 60 years after the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child, children world-wide are being harmed and some dying from climate change impacts, and governments world-wide are promoting more extraction and burning of fossil fuels.

Fossil fuel CO2 emissions was another record high in 2023. 

Agreements and legislation are having no protective effects for children under today's accelerating climate change. 

The issue goes back to the core principle of intergenerational equity  of the 1992 UN Earth Summit.

However this is still under discussion as below: 

March 2024 saw the Zero draft of the UN Declaration on Future Generations that proposed future generations as an agenda item of the General Assembly and an annual forum on the needs of future generations 

On 13 February 2023 High-Level Committee on Programmes (HLCP)
Core Group on Duties to the Future produced a Discussion paper:

Duties to the future through an intergenerational equity lens  

 This formulation is reflected in important instruments such as the 2030 Agenda where in paragraph 18, Member States agreed to “implement the Agenda for the full benefit of all, for today’s generation and for future generations. However it says that In the context of human rights law, intergenerational equity is not yet articulated in a dedicated international human rights instrument, and there is relevant work to be done in agreeing on a common understanding of future generations as rights-holders.

On 3 Feb 2023 we have  Maastricht Principles adopted  The Human Rights of Future Generations 
The Maastricht Principles on the Human Rights of Future Generations seek to clarify the present state of international law as it applies to the human rights of future generations. The Principles consolidate the developing legal framework and affirm

binding obligations of States and other actors as prescribed under international and human rights law. They also provide a progressive interpretation and development of existing human rights standards in the context of the human rights of future
generations

The UN agreements with respect to the protection of children from climate harm are below:

The UN 1948 Universal Declaration of human rights includes Article 25 (b) 'Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection'.
Children's right to climate safety falls under the 1959 UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child on the Rights of the Child and Inferred under the 1992 UN climate convention, but governments continue to support more fossil fuel extraction which by current plans leads to climate catastrophic 3.2°C (IPCC AR6).

1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child  Only the U.S. has not ratified 

In many countries the convention is not binding till domestic legialation is passed

2021 UN Child Rights Committee rules that countries bear cross-border responsibility for harmful impact of climate change

Ruling of a petition filed by 16 children from 12 countries against Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany and Turkey in 2019.

The children claimed that these five countries, which were historic emitters and had recognised the competence of the Committee to receive petitions, had failed to take necessary preventive measures to protect and fulfil children’s rights to life, health, and culture. The children also argued that the climate crisis is not an abstract future threat and that the 1.1°C increase in global average temperature since pre-industrial times has already caused devastating heat waves, fostering the spread of infectious diseases, forest fires, extreme weather patterns, floods, and sea-level rise. As children, they claimed, they were among the most affected by these life-threatening impacts, both mentally and physically.

1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change  obligates governments to protect children from climate change harm "Determined to protect the climate system for present and future generations"

"All governments shall formulate, implement, publish and regularly update national plans containing measures to mitigate climate change by addressing anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of all greenhouse gases and measures to facilitate adequate adaptation to climate change" (Article 4. 1. b)

The 1992 UN Earth Summit agreements were based on the principle of inter-generational equity (in addition to intra-generational equity).  

1990 UN World Summit for Children

The 2015 Paris Agreement includes children vulnerability in the Preamble

Acknowledging that climate change is a common concern of humankind, Parties should, when taking action to address climate change, respect, promote and consider their respective obligations on human rights, the right to health, ... children, intergenerational equity.  

Analytical study on the relationship between climate change and the full and effective enjoyment of the rights of the child

A comprehensive authoritative report on children and climate change

U.N. June 2017, UN Human Rights Council a 17 page Report  

Conclusion included the following 

The negative impacts of climate change, including the increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters, changing precipitation patterns, food and water shortages, and the increased transmission of communicable diseases, threaten the
enjoyment by children of their rights to health, life, food, water and sanitation,education, housing, culture and development, among others. Climate change heightens existing social and economic inequalities, intensifies poverty and reverses
progress towards improvement in children’s well-being. All children are exceptionally vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change, with the youngest children being most at risk.

In climate-vulnerable States and climate-sensitive areas, climate change poses a contemporaneous threat to inhabitants’ rights to life, survival and development, among others. The rights and opportunities of children living in such areas can be severely affected. Beyond threatening children’s physical well-being, climate change poses a threat to their cultural identity, to their connections with the natural environment and to their education.

Children have a right to meaningful participation in climate policy making aimed at accomplishing these 

Obligations by governments are covered in detail.  

 This is a one page summary

According to United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), there may be no greater threat facing the world’s children, and future generations, than climate change. Children in vulnerable situations are disproportionately affected by climate change.

U.N.