Climate Youth Council 2024 (Part 1) : Young People's Experiment in Strengthening Democracy and Fighting Climate Change

Hello, climate citizens.

Today, we are all experiencing the severity and impact of the climate crisis in real time through the constant global climate disaster news flooding in. Scientists have clearly outlined the causes of the climate crisis and potential solutions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) unanimously approved the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report at its 58th General Assembly, which stresses the urgent need for integrated short-term climate action. The IPCC has confirmed that: 

1. human activities, primarily greenhouse gas emissions, have raised global surface temperatures by 1.1°C compared to 1850-1900 levels (from 2011-2020).
2. continued greenhouse gas emissions will exacerbate warming, with 1.5°C expected to be reached in the near future (2021-2040) under nearly all scenarios.
3. achieving deep and sustained emission reductions is crucial for ensuring a livable and sustainable future for all, requiring a rapid transition across all sectors and systems. 

Perhaps the reality is even more dire than the IPCC projections. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced that the global average temperature in 2024 has risen by 1.55°C compared to pre-industrial levels, exceeding the 1.5°C target of the Paris Agreement for the first time. Additionally, a press release from January 10 confirmed that 2024 has recorded the highest temperatures ever since modern meteorological observations began.

The climate crisis is not a distant threat; it is an urgent crisis with very serious consequences. Particularly, developing countries and vulnerable populations, who are relatively less responsible for the climate crisis, are facing a paradoxical situation where their ability to adapt to the crisis is severely limited, putting their very survival at risk. Moreover, in the process of implementing climate crisis response policies, these vulnerable groups are often bearing the brunt of the pain, such as job losses. As the IPCC pointed out, the causes and solutions to the climate crisis are clear: reducing the greenhouse gases emitted by human activities. Above all, it is crucial to put an end to the fossil fuel-based energy systems, which are responsible for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions, and to transition justly to sustainable energy systems based on renewable sources. So, why do many countries, including South Korea, fail to adopt effective policies to address the climate crisis? The reason is that, despite the maintenance of procedural and formal democracy and the rule of law, elected governments are faced with a paradoxical situation (post-democracy) where they betray the objectives that citizens sought to achieve through democratic processes. The delay in climate policies may be a representative example of the regressive reality where 'capitalism takes precedence over democracy.'

It is important to recognize that the limitations of the established political system in addressing the climate crisis are rooted in the constraints of representative democracy as defined by fossil fuel-based capitalism. Recently, in South Korea's civil society, there has been an increasing focus among researchers and activists on strengthening democracy and fighting climate change through practical initiatives like Citizens' Assemblies on Climate. These assemblies provide a deliberative public space where citizens, as sovereigns, can learn about and deliberate policies to address the climate crisis, directly participating in the policy-making process.

In line with this, I decided to apply this perspective to the liberal arts course I teach at Kyung Hee University, titled Climate Crisis and Direct Action. The goal of the course is to learn about the causes and impacts of the climate crisis and explore methods of response. Through student-driven, creative, and voluntary direct actions, we aim to explore social change. I named this initiative 2024 Climate Youth Council and presented the curriculum to students, encouraging them to enroll and engage in this critical dialogue.

Envisioning the Climate Youth Council

Despite the severity of the climate crisis, South Korea's policy response has been disappointingly slow. According to the 2021 Global Carbon Project report, South Korea's carbon emissions ranked 9th among 219 countries worldwide. Additionally, South Korea ranks 15th in cumulative emissions since 1990, 5th among OECD countries for annual greenhouse gas emissions, and 6th in per capita emissions. At the 29th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP29), the international environmental coalition, Climate Action Network (CAN), named South Korea the "Fossil of the Day" award winner. They strongly criticized South Korea for delaying the OECD countries' agreement to phase out subsidies for oil and gas. They also pointed out that while South Korea leads global trends, its financial support for fossil fuels is regressive.

Although South Korea is criticized domestically and internationally as a climate villain, its citizens are well aware of the gravity of the climate crisis. According to a 2024 Gallup poll on climate change awareness, the proportion of people who consider global warming to be a result of human activity was the second highest among 39 countries, right behind Finland. Over the past decade, there has been a significant increase in activities within South Korean civil society to address the climate crisis. Particularly, climate movements led by younger generations, such as the Youth Climate Emergency Action, have been active. For example, on August 29, 2024, the Constitutional Court of Korea issued a ruling of constitutional incompatibility in a climate lawsuit brought by a diverse group of petitioners, including infants, children, and citizens. The court ruled that the failure to set specific reduction targets after 2030 was unconstitutional. As a result, the government and the National Assembly must amend the relevant provisions of the Carbon Neutrality Act by February 2026. This landmark ruling, known as the first constitutional climate ruling in Asia and the youngest climate lawsuit in the world, gained significant attention, particularly because the representative petitioner, a fetus with the nickname "Woodpecker," was registered as the lead petitioner in the Baby Climate Lawsuit.

Strengthening Democracy and Fighting Climate Change in an Era of Betrayal by Elected Politicians and Bureaucrats

In an era where legally elected or appointed politicians and government officials are betraying citizens, how can we strengthen democracy and fight climate change? It is necessary to expand the content and methods of democracy beyond the limitations of traditional representative democracy. Instead of merely complementing the existing system, we must expand new forms of democracy that challenge and replace parts of the current system, creating tension in the process. Hyunwoo Kim(2024) of the Degrowth and Alternative Institute suggests extending our attention to other forms of democracy, including lottery-based democracy, beyond reforming the political inner circles of professional politicians and bureaucrats. The concept of citizens' assemblies, which are being experimented with in countries and cities including the UK and France, is based on this recognition.

In the UK, the Extinction Rebellion (XR UK) emphasizes that citizens' assemblies differ from traditional politics in the following ways: 

1. they are accountable because participants listen to balanced information from experts, stakeholders, and victims, and reach joint decisions through small group discussions, 
2. the members are randomly selected, often through a lottery system, and the process is transparent,
3. participants are more likely to think long-term because they care about their future, and 
4. the assemblies involve people from diverse backgrounds (gender, age, race, etc.), ensuring diversity and fairness.

Meanwhile, during my three years of teaching the course Climate Crisis and Direct Action at Kyung Hee University's Humanities College since 2021, I believed it was important to empower students to engage in free and creative exploration, which is the goal of liberal arts education. To achieve this, I referred to the famous Weitelsbach Agreement from Germany. This agreement includes (1) prohibition of coercion, (2) maintenance of contentiousness, and (3) strengthening political action capabilities. However, during the initial stages of the course, challenges arose due to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and large lecture formats that limited discussions, as well as a lack of connection with real-world experiences outside the classroom. Specifically, creating a process where students could engage in voluntary and creative direct actions was not easy.

At this point, I decided to apply the concepts of citizens' assemblies and the Weitelsbach Agreement and design a teaching method around the newly ruled unconstitutional Carbon Neutrality Act. Through the course Climate Crisis and Direct Action: 2024 Climate Youth Council (hereafter referred to as the Climate Youth Council), students (1) broaden their understanding of the causes and impacts of the climate crisis by learning and debating related issues (climate literacy), (2) reproduce the issues of social problems in the classroom by defining problems and analyzing conflicts from the perspective of complexity (reproduction of debate), (3) establish direct action plans for the climate crisis through reading discussions, expert lectures, and field meetings (plan formulation), and (4) support the practice process to enhance the effectiveness of education (strengthening political action capabilities). Above all, I thought it was important to continuously connect with politics and civil society outside the classroom and implement real actions. Specifically, by learning and discussing South Korea's climate policies and systems through the Carbon Neutrality Act, I designed an experimental course that identifies problems, creates alternatives, and directly takes action, linking these processes to university education.

In Part 2, we will dive into the specific details of the lessons aimed at combating climate change.