Kids can sue over climate crisis

Oil-covered boats at El Palito beach, a few feet away from an oil refinery in El Palito, Venezuela in 2020. Children have a right to sue nations over climate, a UN panel says. — ©️2023 The New York Times Company

YOUNG people around the world are increasingly taking their governments to court for failing to reduce climate pollution, and on rare occasions, they are winning.

Their efforts received an endorsement recently from an independent panel of experts that interprets United Nations human rights law, the Committee on the Rights of the Child.