The world’s governments are spending more on fossil fuels subsidies than they do on education, according to calculations by the International Monetary Fund.
“We estimate that scrapping explicit and implicit fossil-fuel subsidies would prevent 1.6 million premature deaths annually, raise government revenues by $4.4 trillion, and put emissions on track toward reaching global warming targets. It would also redistribute income as fuel subsidies benefit rich households more than poor ones,” wrote IMF staffers recently.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has produced another lever for encouraging governments to abandon fossil fuel subsidies.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has produced a new 20-page statement on children’s rights and the environment, with a special focus on climate change.
Below, Dr Noam Peleg, a Senior Lecturer at UNSW’s Faculty of Law and Justice, explains the significance of this development in an article first published at The Conversation, under the headline, ‘Climate change threatens the rights of children. The UN just outlined the obligations states have to protect them’.
Beneath the article are tweets and links to other climate-related news.
Climate change is not just an environmental crisis, it’s a human rights crisis. And the humans to be most affected by climate catastrophe are the youngest ones: children.
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Women and children bear the effects of climate change more. This needs to be addressed
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The revelation that governments spend more on fossil fuel subsidies than on education is a stark wake-up call and we need to take crucial steps in advocating for the protection of our planet and the well-being of future generations
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Great observation from most governments to ignore the importance of the young people
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In full support of this
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Very true. Protecting children is preserving future and nurturing the flow of life. This is great and is a much required action.
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Every child is entitled to clean and safe environment for proper development and growth they should be protected against climate crisis
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No one should be left behind, children are the part of the Sustainable future
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The observation that climate change disproportionately affects children underscores the urgency of addressing the crisis.
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I support this