Does climate change violate children’s rights? Investigating the use of scientific evidence in child and youth-led climate litigation

Climate change is already increasing the frequency, intensity and duration of many extreme weather events around the world, as well as driving impacts on communities through slow-onset changes, and will continue to do so with each additional degree of warming. Young and future generations will face an ever-greater number of such events during their lifetimes, raising concerns regarding the intergenerational inequity inherent in climate change. In response to these concerns, child and youth-led climate litigation is emerging as an avenue to push for more ambitious climate policies at national and regional scales, by applying legal duties and obligations in a forward-looking way and presenting courts with  scientific evidence of observed and projected climate risks and impacts. Recent complaints led by young people, including, for example, Sacchi et al. v. Argentina et al., lodged in 2019 with the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and Duarte Agostinho et al. v. Portugal et al., which was heard in 2023 by the European Court of Human Rights, have broken new ground by bringing the rights of children and future generations to the fore. Based on a review of recent and ongoing cases, we will investigate (i) what harms are claimed by youth plaintiffs, and (ii) whether, how and to what extent scientific evidence is used to support their claims. By comparing the cases in relation to their claims, jurisdictional frameworks, reference to human and/or children’s rights, and status, we will shed light on how youth applicants have addressed the main challenges of this specific category of climate litigation, including meeting the victimhood requirement, and what role evidence from the geosciences and other scientific fields has played.