Climate change is a defining challenge of our time, with urgent ecological, economic, and social implications.
Families are at the heart of sustainable development and climate action. They raise the next generation, provide care across life stages, and are crucial for a sustainable change. However, families are impacted by both the effects of climate change and the measures taken to mitigate and adapt to it. Moreover, families are a place where discussions about climate change take place, families are called upon to contribute to climate action as agents of change, and they have a vested interest in doing so – often conflicting with other interests, or restrained living conditions. Families raise children, who bear the greatest burden of the impact of climate change.
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This position paper outlines intersections of climate and family policy and provides recommendations to ensure that climate action is inclusive, fair, and future-proof. With this paper COFACE Families Europe calls for an integrated, rights-based, and socially-just approach to climate policy that includes social-ethical considerations and puts the family perspective at all levels first.
COFACE calls for an open and positive approach in organising necessary debates on the right measures in climate policy. These discussions themselves should not be seen as a threat. When arguing in favour of taking into account family and social factors in climate policy, this should be done with the goal of supporting measures for climate protection and at the same time finding synergies between those fields. If this is done consequently, a family-oriented climate policy can contribute to improving the quality of life and participation of disadvantaged families.
- It is needed to follow strong climate targets and policies that protect families and their children from catastrophic climate change, including limiting global warming to an average of less than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for the rest of the century.
- Families can be agents of change. Therefore, political framework conditions that promote climate-friendly action should pay particular attention to families. At the same time those policies should encourage families to adopt sustainable lifestyles and give them the needed access to resources to live this livestyle.
- Family organisations play a special role in the socio-ecological transformation. The role of family organisations as intermediaries between families and politics should also receive greater recognition within developing climate policy. At the same time, the organisations are working on improving their own sustainability. Therefore, the funding concepts of these organisations in the future should take into account the financial challenges associated with transitioning towards greater sustainability. The family organisations themselves should seek to establish an enduring collaboration or joint workshops with climate NGOs to discuss the integration of climate and family policy.
- Policies should take children’s physical and mental health as a central point. Children are the least responsible for climate change, yet they bear the greatest burden of its impact. The (non-) decisions that are taken today will have massive impacts on the next generations.
- Political processes and public policies to mitigate climate change should be transparent and participatory. This not only leads to greater acceptance, but also makes new resources available to those involved in order to reach the best possible decisions.
- Support families wishing to undertake energy renovation, by helping them access national and EU funds. Resources, family composition, and geographical situation should all be considered as criteria to ensure families in more vulnerable situations are also covered by these funds.
- Programmes and policies are needed at the local level that help families to be more resilient to acute impacts of climate change. These include disaster risk assessments and prevention planning, psychological first aid, and more.
- Sustainable consumption means sustainable goods. Sustainable consumption is only viable if sustainable offers exist, are visible, and are financially accessible. Hence product durability should be promoted.
- Sustainable food systems must be prioritised. Climate change poses a serious threat to food security and family nutrition, particularly for vulnerable households. Public policies should support sustainable agriculture, local food systems, and affordable access to nutritious and affordable food for all families.
- Accelerate the phasing out of phasing out fossil fuels. The process should include the decrease of the use of plastic, for instance by the increase and more efficient use of recycling and gradually eliminating single-use packaging, especially plastic packaging like bottles.
- Align labour policy with climate adaptation goals. This can be done by strengthening the legal frameworks to protect workers from extreme heat through clear climate risk protocols to suspend or reduce working hours during official heat waves; and grant additional paid leave for workers who cannot safely reach their workplace due to climate-related hazards (this is not just for summer plans, but any extreme weather events such as floods, fires or heatwaves).
