Children’s Rights and the Pursuit of Intergenerational Climate Justice in Nigeria

Abstract

Climate change is a major issue in environmental law. It is also an inherently intergenerational problem, with extremely serious implications for equity (justice) between present and future generations and among communities in the present and the future. Africa is one of the regions of the world most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change owing to its high exposure and poor adaptive capacity. The scourge of climate change in Africa is hitting the most vulnerable hardest, and contributing to food insecurity, population displacement and stress on water resources. The 2021 report of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) confirms that African children are most at risk of climate change. The report ranked Nigeria second among the countries classified as extremely high-risk countries where children are most at risk of climate change, together with Chad, and after the Central African Republic, which ranked first. Nigerian children are found to be highly exposed to air pollution and coastal floods, which adversely affect their rights to life, survival and development, health and education, thus amplifying existing inequalities. Consequently, there is a need to invest in the services that children depend on to survive. This article examines the impact of climate change on the rights of children in Nigeria and proposes measures for intergenerational climate justice. It recommends, inter alia, the adoption of a children’s rights-based approach to climate change mitigation and adaptation and integrating children’s rights into Nigerian climate change responses.