During the United Nations Climate Action Summit on Monday, 16 Children, including the famous climate change activist Greta Thunberg filed a complaint regarding the lack of effort being made to stop the climate crisis. Amidst those 16 was a youngster from India, ‘Ridhima Pandey’ who also voiced against the lack of government action towards the climate emergency.
The 16 child petitioners, aged between 8 to 17, on Monday at the United Nations’ headquarters, alleged the failure of Member States to tackle the climate crisis. They pointed out that the failure of these member states constituted towards the violation of child rights. The Third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child was used to file the complaint. This is a voluntary mechanism, which allows and can be used by children or adults on their behalf, to appeal directly to the United Nations for help if a country that has ratified the Protocol, fails to provide a remedy for violation of rights.
Children from 12 countries participated in filing the complaint including India’s Ridhima Pandey. The girl who hails from Uttarakhand, said that her mission is to ‘save the future’. Ridhima Pandey’s bio on the website of Children vs Climate Crisis, reads, “I want a better future and I want to save my future, our future, the future of all the children and all the people of future generations.”
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In the year 2017, Ridhima filed a case against the Indian government citing their failure to take action against climate change. The petition that Ridhima filed through her legal guardian, she had contended that India is one of the most vulnerable countries to adverse climate change impacts. While citing this she had asked the court to order the government to assess industrial projects for climate-related issues. She also asked the court to order the government to prepare a ‘carbon budget’ to limit the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), and create a national climate recovery plan.
Her plea to the court was prompted by the disastrous ‘Uttarakhand floods of 2013’. According to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, ‘The disaster and devastation caused by the Uttarakhand floods of 2013 adversely affected Ridhima. “She is a daughter of an environmental activist and is closely attached to it,” said Rahul Choudhary, the lawyer who represented her at National Green Tribunal’.
However, the plea was disposed of by the NGT stating that climate change is already covered under the environmental impact assessment. The government body had also said that the authorities who were acting under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, have no option but to perform their obligation of impact assessment according to the statutory scheme, which was not challenged in the plea.
