Climate Change and Children: Positioning Children as Stakeholders within the Climate Change Debate in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam.

Home to almost 20 million people, the Mekong Delta in Vietnam is one of the most at risk regions globally in terms of exposure to climate change and sea-level rise, notably in terms of future flood risk. Societal resilience to climate change and flood risk will underpin adaptation and mitigation measures into the future.An essential first step in developing resilience within at risk communities is an appreciation of existing understandings and perceptions of the target audience. It is also important to decipher where these understandings and perceptions stem from, identifying influencing factors.To understand this, a multidisciplinary approach that listens to the personal needs and perceptions of local stakeholders is required. Amongst these local stakeholders, yet often an underexplored and forgotten group within both research and policy, is children. This is despite children being statistically the most vulnerable group to both the effects of climate change and flooding. As the citizens and stakeholders that will go on to face the projected changes associated with climate change, understanding their existing perceptions is paramount.This paper will present the findings from a project that explored local children's perceptions of climate change in the heart of the Mekong Delta. Creative and arts based methods enabled children's voices to be heard. Combined with further policy analysis and interviews with parents, teachers and government officials, these voices have been further contextualised within their socio-cultural context and environment. Through developing an understanding of these perceptions and the influencing factors, a more effective and holistic approach to shaping children's climate change resilience can be executed, which will ultimately enhance a society's ability to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change into the future