8. How can CLE promote climate wellbeing in students?

Today’s law students face well-documented risks to mental health and wellbeing.^[1] Potentially compounding risks to student mental health are emerging experiences of ‘climate anxiety’.^[2]

While not confined to younger generations, the incidence of psychological distress related to the climate crisis is higher in young people,^[3] with increasing evidence of the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on young people’s mental health.^[4] For some law students this climate distress might raise questions about their professional future in the law.^[5]

Many students enrol in a climate clinic driven by a desire to contribute to a community working for the environment. Some may be motivated to develop skills in a developing area of practice, or simply curious about what is involved. For others, an awareness of the multifaceted impacts of climate change informs questions around how to best prepare for a professional future in the law.^[6]

The real nature of the work of the climate clinic is important in this respect. We suggest that a clinical methodology allows students to learn about and for the climate in a way that is not possible within the doctrinal confines of the standard curriculum. The clinic provides a glimpse into a different career possibility for students who are eager to make a difference in a climate-changed world^[7] but who are often at a loss about how to do so in the depressing state of world governance order.^[8]

It is also where students and teachers can channel the real anxiety experienced in the face of the climate crisis in a way that is supportive of their wellbeing and professional identity formation.^[9]