Advocates of climate action? The age of members of parliament and their activity in legislative debates on climate change

Abstract Parliamentary debates are an important stage in the process of designing new policies and play role for discussing policy reactions to exogenous events like COVID-19 pandemic or long-term developments climate change. We combine theories on vote-seeking strategies political actors with theoretical accounts that highlight impact personal characteristics politicians argue particular younger Members Parliament (MPs) should put more emphasis issues related change its consequences than older MPs. test our hypotheses basis original dataset covering all parliamentary focus German Bundestag from 2013 until 2021, thus concentrating a time period when became highly salient issue among public. find age MPs matters: are, speeches they contribute policy. Graphical