Special issue: “Youth studies in Australia and the climate crisis: time for action”

In a context marked by seismic and overlapping social, economic, technological political and environmental disruption, children and young people have been demanding governments take urgent action to address climate change. Against this backdrop of polycrisis we responded to a call from the editors of this journal to prepare a special issue that addresses the intersecting crises and particularly the climate crisis (Hendry et al., 2023). It’s a special issue that presents new empirical, conceptual, theoretical and practical responses to climate change grounded in youth-centered research from Australia. This opening article begins with a review of contributions from youth studies research addressing the character of the policy crisis with a focus on young people’s climate action. We argue that Australia is an important site of research, making valuable contributions to youth studies taking place across the globe. We then argue for a new approach to climate change policy that centers on young people and their pursuit of climate justice. We say why youth studies is well positioned to make such a political contribution. We conclude by saying how youth studies can contribute further to informing policy responses to the polycrisis and the climate crisis in particular.