Date of Award

January 2025

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Medical Doctor (MD)

Department

Medicine

First Advisor

Laelia Benoit

Abstract

Young people worldwide demand a voice in climate governance, yet their perspectives remain largely excluded from the moral frameworks that shape climate policy. This exclusion not only marginalizes children’s lived experiences and ethical reasoning but also perpetuates paternalistic norms and dangerous marginalization. To counter this, this thesis study shows that youth are not just passive stakeholders but moral agents whose perspectives yield a more just and comprehensive understanding of climate responsibility. Recognizing their ethical insights is crucial for medicine, especially pediatrics and child psychiatry, given how climate change amplifies health risks like respiratory illnesses, heat-related conditions, and eco-anxiety. Understanding how youth conceptualize climate ethics helps clinicians offer developmentally informed support and advocate for child-centered policies.

We divide this thesis into two parts. First, a theoretical argument draws on feminist epistemology and social movement theory to highlight how excluding children’s voices creates knowledge gaps and ethical blind spots (Part 1). It critiques rationalist traditions that dismiss experience-based and relational reasoning, arguing that children’s exclusion from climate governance follows a pattern of epistemic marginalization.

Second, an empirical analysis (Part 2) examines how young people develop climate ethics, using a secondary analysis of qualitative data from 115 participants (ages 7 to 18) across the United States, France, and Brazil. Thematic analysis, informed by grounded theory, reveals six moral principles shaping youth climate ethics. Rather than treating responsibility as purely individual, participants view it as relational and role-based, emphasizing intergenerational fairness, government and corporate accountability, and the need to balance personal choices with systemic change. Their reasoning integrates emotion and lived experience with logic, challenging dominant ethics frameworks.

Overall, the findings show that young people form sophisticated ethical positions, prioritizing intergenerational fairness, relational responsibility, and structural accountability. To ensure equitable and morally sound climate policy, youth must be included not merely as affected populations but as genuine contributors to the ethical frameworks guiding climate action.

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This is an Open Access Thesis.

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