oung people have a lot to offer as we fight climate change. Their ideas help us develop solutions to the global climate crisis, but beyond that their activism has pushed us to adopt stronger climate commitments. While youth engagement has been powerful, it has not yet achieved its full potential. Up to now, most of the effort put into encouraging youth engagement on climate has mostly taken place around international processes. Achieving a sustainability transformation, however, requires more powerful youth engagement at the national and local levels as well.
As COP28 approaches, we can expect more youth participation, with stakeholders looking to capture their perspectives and make the climate debate more inclusive. Youth NGOs have actively voiced their concerns on issues such as the guidelines for market mechanisms under the Paris Agreement, loss and damage finance, indigenous peoples’ rights, and Action for Climate Empowerment. The decision adopted at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh last year encourages parties to include youth in their processes for designing and implementing climate policy and action, and to consider including young representatives and negotiators in their national delegations. This is one way to better integrate their presence and opinions in national and global decision making.
Seeking Meaningful Youth Engagement
Young people have good intentions and are motivated to get involved, but they often lack understanding of policy processes and national needs, which often leads to narrow types of activism. This tends to limit their role to “poster children” attending climate rallies rather than agents of meaningful, active involvement in real negotiations. To ensure such participation in COPs and other international meetings, we should train young people on the science, policy, and economics of climate change, the specific needs of countries, and on the progress of negotiations to date. A good example of an effort to build such capacity is the Young Negotiators Academy, which focuses on intergenerational learning to facilitate knowledge and insight sharing. The world needs more than advocacy from youth—we also need their original ideas and innovative solutions—whether supporting or opposing the official positions of parties.
The current generation grew up in a capitalist world, encapsulated in consumerism and rapid technological progress. On one hand, this better equips them to engage with technology and the digital world. On the other, it has disrupted their connections with the natural world, self-sufficiency, and relational wellbeing. Humanity today is increasingly consumption-oriented and reliant on fossil fuels—and are no longer interested in agriculture-based livelihoods. This means accelerated urbanization, in both developed and developing economies, in pursuit of service sector jobs.
The rural economy needs more labor—especially among more developed economies—to restore abandoned landscapes. In this context, meaningful youth engagement means empowering young people to drive climate initiatives at the local level, applying innovative methods and technologies to support both the economy and nature. Many youths working in government, the private sector, civil society, and academia are coming up with real solutions for climate change—including mitigation, adaptation, and monitoring. There are examples of such youth-led initiatives that are turning the tide in their countries through innovative solutions. But these initiatives tend to be less visible than larger youth activism, eclipsing real progress on implementation.
Genuine engagement of youth can be enhanced by leveraging youth activity within the climate domain. For example, providing young negotiators with opportunities to speak up during the negotiations, allowing youth in the private sector to come up with and implement sustainability solutions, and providing finance for civil society activities carried out by youth, which make a real difference on the ground. Local implementation and climate action is the key to transformation. While COPs provide a platform and a stage to voice relevant concerns, youth attendance and participation at these annual meetings shouldn’t be an end in itself, but rather a means to achieve successful climate action. Instead of seeing youth primarily as victims of climate change, we should ensure that they are properly equipped with the tools and training to be empowered as active agents of change, making them the torchbearers for our sustainable future.
Editors’ Note: This article was included in our COP 28 special edition, which was published on November 21, 2023, and which you can find here. All articles were written with that publication time frame in mind.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations University.
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Advancing Youth Climate Action From Global to Local Levels
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December 4, 2023
Youth engagement has been a powerful tool in the fight against climate change, but it has yet to reach its full potential. Most youth engagement has been focused on international processes, but their engagement on local levels will also bring great gains, writes Himangana Gupta.
Y
oung people have a lot to offer as we fight climate change. Their ideas help us develop solutions to the global climate crisis, but beyond that their activism has pushed us to adopt stronger climate commitments. While youth engagement has been powerful, it has not yet achieved its full potential. Up to now, most of the effort put into encouraging youth engagement on climate has mostly taken place around international processes. Achieving a sustainability transformation, however, requires more powerful youth engagement at the national and local levels as well.
As COP28 approaches, we can expect more youth participation, with stakeholders looking to capture their perspectives and make the climate debate more inclusive. Youth NGOs have actively voiced their concerns on issues such as the guidelines for market mechanisms under the Paris Agreement, loss and damage finance, indigenous peoples’ rights, and Action for Climate Empowerment. The decision adopted at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh last year encourages parties to include youth in their processes for designing and implementing climate policy and action, and to consider including young representatives and negotiators in their national delegations. This is one way to better integrate their presence and opinions in national and global decision making.
Seeking Meaningful Youth Engagement
Young people have good intentions and are motivated to get involved, but they often lack understanding of policy processes and national needs, which often leads to narrow types of activism. This tends to limit their role to “poster children” attending climate rallies rather than agents of meaningful, active involvement in real negotiations. To ensure such participation in COPs and other international meetings, we should train young people on the science, policy, and economics of climate change, the specific needs of countries, and on the progress of negotiations to date. A good example of an effort to build such capacity is the Young Negotiators Academy, which focuses on intergenerational learning to facilitate knowledge and insight sharing. The world needs more than advocacy from youth—we also need their original ideas and innovative solutions—whether supporting or opposing the official positions of parties.
The current generation grew up in a capitalist world, encapsulated in consumerism and rapid technological progress. On one hand, this better equips them to engage with technology and the digital world. On the other, it has disrupted their connections with the natural world, self-sufficiency, and relational wellbeing. Humanity today is increasingly consumption-oriented and reliant on fossil fuels—and are no longer interested in agriculture-based livelihoods. This means accelerated urbanization, in both developed and developing economies, in pursuit of service sector jobs.
The rural economy needs more labor—especially among more developed economies—to restore abandoned landscapes. In this context, meaningful youth engagement means empowering young people to drive climate initiatives at the local level, applying innovative methods and technologies to support both the economy and nature. Many youths working in government, the private sector, civil society, and academia are coming up with real solutions for climate change—including mitigation, adaptation, and monitoring. There are examples of such youth-led initiatives that are turning the tide in their countries through innovative solutions. But these initiatives tend to be less visible than larger youth activism, eclipsing real progress on implementation.
Genuine engagement of youth can be enhanced by leveraging youth activity within the climate domain. For example, providing young negotiators with opportunities to speak up during the negotiations, allowing youth in the private sector to come up with and implement sustainability solutions, and providing finance for civil society activities carried out by youth, which make a real difference on the ground. Local implementation and climate action is the key to transformation. While COPs provide a platform and a stage to voice relevant concerns, youth attendance and participation at these annual meetings shouldn’t be an end in itself, but rather a means to achieve successful climate action. Instead of seeing youth primarily as victims of climate change, we should ensure that they are properly equipped with the tools and training to be empowered as active agents of change, making them the torchbearers for our sustainable future.
Editors’ Note: This article was included in our COP 28 special edition, which was published on November 21, 2023, and which you can find here. All articles were written with that publication time frame in mind.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations University.
