'They are the future': State must allow young people a say on climate issues, Oireachtas told

Members of Ireland’s first Children and Young People’s Assembly on Biodiversity Loss with Heritage Minister Malcolm Noonan (centre, back) earlier this year. The members of the assembly came up with 58 calls to action across seven themes, including education and awareness raising, governance, restoring and rewilding, habitat and species protection, energy and transport, overexploitation, and waste and consumption.

There is still a stigma in taking children's views seriously, despite them having to deal with the consequences of political decision-making, the Oireachtas climate committee has heard.

Young people from the Children and Young People’s Assembly, which had six key messages formulated for policymakers to consider following their first gathering last year, told TDs and senators that they want their voices to count in combating biodiversity and climate change.