We need to green our missions, not just our operations

If you’re growing up in Britain today you will be impacted in two ways – the impact now, plus the impact you will experience for the rest of your life. Your age, gender, ethnicity, and household income will affect how you are impacted, and how severely.

There are few evaluations of government policies on climate or nature. Where these exist, mentions of young people, or even people, were often no more than a few sentences. This is a significant gap.

• Disadvantaged young people being ‘hit harder by climate crisis’

In fact, people rarely get a mention in government net zero documents. The focus instead is on technical, economic, and political solutions. That may have worked for building windfarms, but the radical lifestyle changes coming next demand the involvement of people – and young people especially. For example, changes to how we eat, travel, and heat and cool our homes.

At NPC we believe we can build a fairer society where we heal the damage done to our environment and strengthen our communities in the process; where charities and funders empower different social groups to shape society’s response to the environmental crises; and where together we find solutions that improve life for everyone whilst protecting and restoring our environment.

This means going beyond simply greening our operations, and instead thinking about how the environment relates to our missions. How will the climate and nature crises impact the young people you work with? What can you do to support them? How can you ensure their voices are heard by policy makers seeking to reach net zero?

In a briefing published today, we show there is an abundance of evidence for how environmental crises will harm young people’s physical and mental health, and that there is also evidence that young people’s education, development, and income will be hindered as well.

Young people from low-income households are worst affected. They are more exposed to air pollution and toxic chemicals than their more affluent peers; more likely to live in poorly adapted housing; less likely to have access to green spaces and less likely to bounce back easily after extreme weather. Similarly, young people from ethnic minority groups and disabled young people are disproportionately represented in low-income households and will therefore be more affected.

At the same time though, young people on low incomes have the most to gain from policies and programmes to improve housing, air quality, public transport, green spaces, and to address the financial implications of the transition to a post-carbon economy. Young women and girls could benefit particularly from improving access to STEM-related education and training that leads to careers in green jobs.

Whilst policy makers have a key role, young people and the youth charities supporting them have significant agency. We think youth charities should move beyond greening their operations. The impact of the climate and nature crises on young people will impact your mission and programmes and that is where you can make the greatest impact. That’s why we’re working with over 40 charities and funders as part of the Everyone’s Environment programme to understand the evidence and design solutions with the people most impacted.

The challenge may feel daunting. But we cannot allow these challenges to be an excuse for inaction. Charities, funders, and government are all well equipped to mitigate the risks to young people and introduce programmes and policies to maximise the benefits for all as we continue our transition to a post-carbon and ecologically regenerative society.

How will the climate and nature crises affect young people? is available at https://www.thinknpc.org/resource-hub/everyones-environment-youth/

Liz Gadd is strategy principal at NPC