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---
title: 4 Things Youth Leaders Need to Progress on Climate Justice
description: The climate movement can only progress if we empower young people, write Sophia Kianni and Jad Daley.
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og:title: Youth Climate Activism Needs Nurturing. Here Are 4 Ways to Make it Happen
og:description: The climate movement can only progress if we empower young people, write Sophia Kianni and Jad Daley.
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twitter:description: The climate movement can only progress if we empower young people, write Sophia Kianni and Jad Daley.
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# Youth Climate Activism Needs Nurturing. Here Are 4 Ways to Make it Happen

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<!-- video src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/CIHrS8Mv.m3u8" -->
## Video: Generation Now: The Fight for Climate Justice

[Watch (HLS stream): Generation Now: The Fight for Climate Justice](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/CIHrS8Mv.m3u8) (14:03)

![Generation Now: The Fight for Climate Justice](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/CIHrS8Mv/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2021-11-05. Today’s young people are coming of age just as the stable climate that has allowed previous generations to thrive on our planet begins to visibly break down—and just before our last chance to stop it falls out of reach._


by [Sophia Kianni](https://time.com/author/sophia-kianni/) and [Jad Daley](https://time.com/author/jed-daley/)

Jan 13, 2023 12:00 PM UTC

Today’s young people are coming of age just as the stable climate that has allowed previous generations to thrive on our planet begins to visibly break down—and just before our last chance to stop it falls out of reach. 

by [Sophia Kianni](https://time.com/author/sophia-kianni/) and [Jad Daley](https://time.com/author/jed-daley/)

Jan 13, 2023 12:00 PM UTC

The climate movement has reached a pivotal juncture. We have an array of constructed and natural climate solutions with [proven potential](https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/resources/spm-headline-statements/) to reduce greenhouse gases and foster climate resilience, from [renewable energy](https://time.com/5272843/california-solar-panel/) and [electric vehicles](https://time.com/6206639/electric-vehicle-tax-credits-inflation-reduction-act/) to [reforestation](https://time.com/6093342/1-trillion-trees-climate-change/) and [climate-smart agriculture](https://time.com/6217813/slow-food-movement-climate-change/). There is just one catch: To avoid the worst of climate change, we must deploy these solutions much faster than ever before, as made clear by the sixth report from the[ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)](https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-what-the-new-ipcc-report-says-about-how-to-limit-warming-to-1-5c-or-2c/). Fortunately, we have a talented and relentless group of climate leaders ready to make this happen—young people.


Youth have shown the right kind of leadership qualities to get the climate movement from a jog to a sprint, and inspire more people and organizations to come on board. If we hope to create climate justice, we must fully empower this burgeoning youth climate movement by giving young leaders the funding, standing, and platform they need to maximize their contributions.

Young people have provided recent demonstration of their unique commitment to climate action and power to energize the whole climate movement. Take the recent [COP27 climate conference](https://time.com/6235427/climate-cop27/) in Egypt, where well-prepared young leaders directly engaged in talks with national delegations and challenged the assembled world leaders at COP27 to “stop lying” in a [plenary address](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YzNDGNRfF4). This same urgency and commitment was demonstrated by American youth who waited in line for hours to tip the [2022 Midterm Elections](https://time.com/preview/6232272/?draft=true) in favor of candidates who match [young voters’ attitudes on climate change](https://circle.tufts.edu/latest-research/youth-concern-about-climate-change-drives-civic-engagement).


But this youth leadership is not a new phenomenon—it has been a driving force behind the climate movement for many years. The ongoing and tireless [Fridays for Future](https://fridaysforfuture.org/) demonstrations led by young people around the world have been one of the most effective efforts to draw broad attention to the climate crisis, in addition to youth leaders’ remarkable skill in using [traditional media and social media](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02696-0) to elevate climate change as a priority issue. This leadership has blossomed into a powerful cohort of youth-led climate organizations such as [Climate Cardinals](https://www.climatecardinals.org/), [Earth Uprising](https://earthuprising.org/), [One Up Action](https://oneupaction.org/), and [Youth4Nature](https://www.youth4nature.org/) that are providing sophisticated, sustained, and impactful leadership for the climate movement.

We need even more of this powerful youth leadership capacity going forward if we hope to create the urgency and broad societal reach for a successful climate movement. Here are four things we can do to fully capture youth leadership potential:

## **Provide funding and accommodations for youth.**

While well-funded climate NGOs have annual budgets running into the millions and often attend major climate events with large teams of people staying in comfortable hotels, [youth organizations struggle](https://futureofgood.co/youth-led-environmental-groups-are-scraping-for-morsels-to-find-funding/) to annually fund their work and scramble to find housing at these same events. We must provide annual funding to these organizations at a level that lets them scale their staff capacity and year-round activities, and complement this by arranging safe, affordable, and accessible accommodations for youth at important national and international conferences—[particularly for young people from the global south](https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/egypt-cop27-climate-summit-africa-pakistan-b2216522.html)—so they have the same comfort and security that others enjoy.

## **Expand formal roles and spaces for youth.**

After creating power with advocacy from outside official circles, young people have earned a dedicated place in global and national climate efforts that gives them power from within the process. There is positive movement in this direction, like the annual [U.N. Climate Change Conference of Youth](https://cairoscene.com/Buzz/Youth-to-Tackle-Climate-Change-at-UN-s-COY17-in-Sharm-El-Sheikh) with the first-ever [Children and Youth Pavilion at COP27](https://www.childrenandyouthpavilion.info/), the increasing presence of young people on [national climate delegations](https://saiia.org.za/news/south-african-youth-at-cop27/), and [speaking opportunities ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeLWEbvXzSA)for youth to address major international climate gatherings. We should continue to expand structured and formalized ways for youth to access and influence how world leaders shape climate agreements and our actions to implement them.


## **Give youth the political power they have earned.**

Some media coverage has downplayed the role of youth in the surprising U.S. Midterm Elections, which could unfairly limit the policymaking access youth have earned. As detailed by youth-led groups such as [Voters Tomorrow](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/gen-millennials-voters-2022-midterms-favored-democrats-stopping/story?id=93338313), the youth vote did tip this election for a number of climate-focused candidates, which is not surprising given that [they consistently place climate change as a top voting concern](https://circle.tufts.edu/latest-research/youth-concern-about-climate-change-drives-civic-engagement). This demonstrated electoral influence means that political leaders and the media should treat climate change as an issue voters care about and seek out youth perspectives on climate policy proposals that will build on the [historic successes](https://time.com/6204537/inflation-reduction-act-whats-in-it/) of the last two years. This includes renewal of legislative efforts to fund a [Civilian Climate Corps](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/08/civilian-climate-corps-was-dropped-climate-bill-now-what/), which was a top youth climate priority lost from the final version of the Inflation Reduction Act.

## **Embrace the catalytic voice and energy of young people.** 


Youth climate leaders have sacrificed some of their traditional freedoms and pastimes, so they can push our leaders and our broader society to meet the climate crisis with the urgency it demands. Given their seriousness and intensity, we should expect and embrace youth using their hard-earned platform to speak truth to power, like [Greta Thunberg’s address](https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/greta-speech-our-house-is-still-on-fire-davos-2020/) to the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, even when this directness makes some uncomfortable. We should also expect and embrace that young leaders are stepping up in new ways to lead climate action in our communities, from starting [ecopreneurial businesses and non-profits ](https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/09/innovations-ecopreneurs-protecting-restoring-planet-generation-restoration/)to [running for public office](https://www.forbes.com/sites/katharinabuchholz/2022/08/26/the-generational-divide-in-us-congress-as-gen-z-enters-the-scene-infographic/?sh=163db4c9b277) and leading volunteer efforts.

We call on government, corporate, philanthropic, and NGO leaders to rapidly deliver in these four areas so we can fully tap the new pace and reach youth can provide for the climate movement. We don’t have time to wait for the politics to change, to wait for some new technology to save us, to wait for public opinion and consumer choices to magically shift.


We must infuse the entire climate movement—government, corporate, and individual action—with the urgency shown by youth leaders. That means speaking plainly about the climate crisis, lifting up ready climate solutions, and mobilizing all parts of our society to help implement them at scale. We can get there together as an intergenerational climate movement if we take action to put youth climate leaders where they can help us most—right up front.


## Transcript

[00:02] [Namrata Iyer]: I think some of the biggest challenges my generation faces is convincing
[00:07] the previous generations about why it's important to talk about what we believe in.
[00:13] [Greta Thunberg]: We can't choose between us young people saying to adults you must
[00:18] behave but we can't wait for us to become the ones in charge because we don't have time
[00:23] for that.
[00:24] [Timothée Chalamet]: Your youth does not have to work against you by way of experience,
[00:27] your youth can be a virtue by way of what you ethically and earnestly expect of the
[00:32] world.
[00:33] [Billie Eilish]: People can be so selfish about the environment and their experience
[00:38] versus the globe and literally our lifespan.
[00:42] [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]: The America we grew up in is like nothing like the America
[00:48] our parents or grandparents grew up in.
[00:51] [Nyke Slawik]: When you have young people who are confronted with not having a future
[00:56] at all of course this is going to radicalize a whole generation.
[01:02] This is a question of survival basically.
[01:07] [John Kerry]: I don't doubt that we will get to a net zero carbon economy.
[01:13] Will we get there fast enough to heed the science and avoid the worst consequences?
[01:17] That's the battle.
[01:19] That's what we're trying to do with Glasgow.
[01:22] [Thunberg]: What do we want?
[01:23] [Audience]: Climate justice.
[01:24] [Thunberg]: When do we want it?
[01:25] [Audience]: Now.
[01:27] [Thunberg]: What do we want?
[01:28] [Audience]: Climate justice.
[01:29] [Thunberg]: When do we want it?
[01:30] [Audience]: Now.
[01:31] [Thunberg]: Thank you.
[01:32] [Justin Worland]: This generation has reframed the way we talk and think about climate to
[01:36] make it an issue of intergenerational justice.
[01:39] The question is will this anger turn into action?
[01:42] Will leaders who have been listening actually take the message to heart and do something
[01:48] about it?
[01:49] [Kerry]: Our diplomacy is guided by what the scientists are telling us we must achieve.
[01:55] Three years ago they had a report in 2018 the IPCC gave us 12 years within which to
[02:01] make the critical decisions to avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis.
[02:06] [Hoesung Lee]: Limiting warming to 1.5 degrees is not impossible but will require unprecedented
[02:13] transitions in all aspects of society.
[02:16] [Worland]: It was alarming in its the seriousness with which it portrayed the consequences of
[02:21] climate change.
[02:22] We're talking about hundreds of millions of people migrating.
[02:25] We're talking about the possibility of countries disappearing in their entirety.
[02:29] We're talking about a world that is totally transformed.
[02:33] Already 85 percent of the world's population has been affected by human-caused climate
[02:37] change.
[02:38] [Jim Skea]: The message is over to governments at this stage.
[02:42] We've told you what you—the scientific facts, the evidence, the costs.
[02:47] It is up to the governments now to decide what to do with it.
[02:51] [Ciara Nugent]: We've had loads and loads of reports about climate change over the last
[02:54] couple of decades and the massive threat to our planet but despite all of the science
[02:59] there are still people who are skeptical about how much of a big deal it really is.
[03:05] And I think for those people it's much harder to dismiss young people, normal school kids
[03:12] because they're part of their communities, they're part of their families often.
[03:16] [Nyke Slawik]: What we need is politicians who implement the policies in their home countries
[03:23] and that's—that's what has not been happening in the last years.
[03:27] And so now young people are saying why go to school?
[03:33] Why go to university?
[03:35] Why start planning a family? Why buy a house when I don't even know that in 50 years time
[03:42] or 70 years time I will still have a future, because right now that's at stake.
[03:50] [Ocasio-Cortez]: If we do nothing this is what's going to happen: sea levels are going rise,
[03:56] crops are going to die out, there will be mass starvation.
[04:00] There's going to be all of these things that are going to happen and kids see that,
[04:04] they internalize it.
[04:08] [Charlotte Alter]: Researchers have found that young voters form their lifelong political
[04:13] attitudes in response to the events of their early adulthood, mostly late teens into the
[04:20] late 20s.
[04:21] And for millennials and gen z that period of time has been defined by climate catastrophe.
[04:29] [Christian Hidalgo]: I'm from Bakersfield, California, central valley.
[04:32] Earlier today I've been getting snapchats from all of my friends talking about how orange
[04:35] the sky is because of the wildfire surrounding us.
[04:39] The closest wildfire is probably not even 60 miles away but we have horrible air quality
[04:44] like we're—I'm in the middle of the valley and it just it really strongly affects us
[04:49] and that's what—that's what's drawn me to climate activism.
[04:51] [Isabella Guariniello]: This is my first strike ever.
[04:54] I watched a bunch of like sad penguin videos on YouTube and I started to get really sad
[05:00] when I learned about the effects of animals and like how much earth that we're actually
[05:05] losing.
[05:06] It's hard not to get discouraged when you're constantly learning about what people before
[05:10] you did wrong.
[05:11] [Sassy Fernandez]: Like I remember being in elementary school and watching Al Gore's documentary
[05:16] about climate change and the effects that we could be seeing within the next 10, 15
[05:22] years and so far he's been pretty right about everything that he said in his documentary.
[05:27] I totally forgot what it was called but shout outs to my science teacher.
[05:31] [Thunberg]: We are being betrayed by those in power and they are failing us but we will
[05:38] not back down.
[05:45] And if you feel threatened by that then I have some very bad news for you.
[05:52] We will not be silenced because we are the change and change is coming whether you like
[05:56] it or not.
[06:00] We need to work together intergenerational of course that is the only way and we need
[06:06] to—everyone needs to participate and help out in the way we can.
[06:12] So I'm doing what I can.
[06:14] I'm trying to use my voice to spread awareness and to—to put pressure on those in power.
[06:21] [Alter]: When TIME put Greta on the cover in 2019 she had just gone from being a school
[06:27] girl protesting alone outside of Swedish parliament to being the leader of a global climate movement.
[06:36] That year her activism inspired four million people to join the global climate strike in
[06:42] 2019 which was at that point the largest climate movement in world history.
[06:47] [Worland]: Across the world with very few exceptions there are examples of people who
[06:52] have been inspired by her and have led—who've taken up the mantle the Fridays for Future
[06:56] movement in countries across the world.
[06:59] [Thunberg]: I'm not a leader or the face of the climate movement, I'm just one of many
[07:05] faces.
[07:06] [Vanessa Nakate]: There are far too little evidence of the 100 billion dollars per year
[07:13] that was promised to help climate vulnerable countries to meet these challenges.
[07:18] In fact, those funds were promised to arrive by 2020 and we are still waiting.
[07:26] [Nugent]: Vanessa Nakate, a Ugandan climate activist, is one of many people who have been
[07:31] working to remind us that climate action is going to be expensive and many countries who
[07:36] are most vulnerable to climate change can't afford to pay for it alone.
[07:40] [Nakate]: Historically Africa is responsible for only three percent of global emissions
[07:46] and yet some Africans are already suffering some of the worst and brutal impacts of climate
[07:52] change, so to me climate justice doesn't just have to be about reducing greenhouse gas emissions
[08:00] it goes beyond the primary disasters that we see.
[08:03] It is what happens in the aftermath of those disasters, what happens to families, what
[08:10] happens to individuals, what happens to communities.
[08:14] [Worland]: You think about the fact that the U.S. has emitted a quarter of emissions historically.
[08:19] Africa has emitted three percent of emissions historically and the U.S. is able to isolate
[08:27] itself, to pay for adaptation, to pay for the costs in a way that developing countries
[08:34] in sub-saharan Africa and across the globe just can't.
[08:38] And so climate change is a justice issue on many different levels.
[08:42] [Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala]: We we have to bear in mind that whether you're rich or poor,
[08:46] a rich country or poor country, there are some things you just cannot do on your own.
[08:51] You can't deliver on this pandemic on your own, you cannot deliver on climate change
[08:57] on your own.
[08:58] [Nakate]: So what we really want is a future that is healthy, that is sustainable, that
[09:04] is clean, that is livable and equitable for all of us.
[09:09] [Nugent]: Some of the activists that I speak to are realizing they can't wait for the older
[09:13] generation to take action so they're trying to get elected to governments themselves.
[09:17] In Germany, the Green Party has really been in the ascendancy.
[09:21] In September they've almost doubled their number of seats in parliament and one of the
[09:26] 118 lawmakers they now have is Nyke Slawik.
[09:32] She's a 27 year old German politician who was elected in September to the Bundestag
[09:37] and she has been involved in climate activism for almost 12 years and now she has political
[09:44] power to make a difference.
[09:46] [Slawik]: The time of just implementing small changes has passed and this is a reality we
[09:56] as younger politicians are bringing with us to the parliament now but of course there's
[10:02] lots of older colleagues who have not quite grasped this yet, and I think this is why
[10:10] we might be more determined to not go for the small compromises, to be a bit more rebellious
[10:17] about these things.
[10:19] The last German government has decided to exit coal in 2038 which is still too late
[10:26] way too late but now we even have the chance to accelerate energy transition from coal
[10:35] to renewables way quicker and that's a major achievement of the youth climate movement.
[10:42] [Alter]: In the United States young voters across the political spectrum understand that
[10:47] climate change is a major issue that needs to be addressed, they just disagree on how
[10:52] best to do it.
[10:53] So even younger Republicans, Republicans under 40, they understand that climate change is
[10:59] happening, they understand that something has to be done about it, they just don't agree
[11:03] with their more progressive peers about the scale and scope of what that intervention
[11:08] needs to be.
[11:10] So this is a big shift from a couple generations ago when you had one side insisting that climate
[11:16] change was a problem and the other side basically denying that it was happening at all.
[11:22] [Worland]: When TIME spoke to Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, he spoke about how
[11:26] the youth movement had made him want to do better.
[11:29] When I talked to the U.N. Secretary General he talked about how he was trying to bring
[11:33] youth into the climate discussion because it had enthused him and he thought it would
[11:38] help change the conversation.
[11:40] Talking to members of Congress about how inspirational Greta was really made clear to me that she
[11:46] was changing the conversation.
[11:48] [Nugent]: In my reporting activists are telling me that COP 26 is a crucial moment to find
[11:53] out if politicians are really listening to them and really taking action or if they're
[11:58] just saying they're listening and delaying action.
[12:01] [Nakate]: Leaders keep praising young people for standing up and protesting but saving
[12:07] the world needs action, it needs decisions from the leaders, decisions that prioritize
[12:13] the lives of the people and the planet, and that is not something that we are doing.
[12:19] The words of the leaders are not matching up with their actions.
[12:24] [Thunberg]: Words.
[12:25] Words that sound great but so far has led to no action.
[12:33] Our hopes and dreams drown in their empty words and promises.
[12:39] Of course we need constructive dialogue but they've now had 30 years of blah blah blah
[12:44] and where has that led us?
[12:47] [Jane Goodall]: I'm about to leave the world and leave it behind me with all the mess whereas
[12:51] young people have to grow up into it.
[12:54] That's why they need every bit of help they can.
[12:57] And if, you know, if they succumb to the doom and gloom ,which many have, then they lose
[13:04] hope.
[13:05] If you lose hope that's the end, because if you don't hope that there's a way out, if
[13:11] you don't hope that your actions can make a difference then you sink into apathy and
[13:16] do nothing.
[13:19] So hope is absolutely crucial if we're to get through this.
[13:27] [Singing]: We're going to strike because our waters are rising.
[13:30] We're going to strike because our people are dying.
[13:32] We're going to strike for life and everything we love.
[13:36] We're going to strike for you, will you strike for us?
[13:38] We're going to strike for you, will you strike for us?
[13:41] We're going to strike because our waters are rising.
[13:43] We're going to strike because our people are dying.
[13:46] We're going to strike for life and everything we love.
[13:49] We're going to strike for you, will you strike for us?
[13:51] We're going to strike for you, will you strike for us?
[13:54] Beautiful.

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