Summary
- Young people’s rights to a healthy environment, safe home, decent job, health care, food and learning are all under threat from the climate crisis.
- As the largest generation in history, today’s young people, in all their diversity, have crucial roles to play in tackling climate change.
- By taking on roles as advocates, researchers, educators, innovators, entrepreneurs and community leaders, young people are helping to build more resilient and sustainable societies.
- Young people recognize that climate change is deeply entwined with issues of human rights, social justice and global equity and call for justice, transparency, resilience and peace.
- Despite their contributions to climate action, young people continue to face significant barriers such as limited access to decision-making spaces, resources, knowledge and capacity-building.
- Ensuring that young people can meaningfully participate in climate action is essential to building a world that reflects the needs and aspirations of current and future generations.
Why is climate change a critical issue for young people?
Young people’s rights to a healthy environment, safe home, decent job, health care, food and learning are all under threat from the climate crisis. As climate change impacts become more frequent and more severe with each passing year, today’s children and young people will face more heatwaves, floods, wildfires and crop failures over their lifetimes than previous generations.
These impacts hit harder in the world’s less developed regions, where 75 percent of the world’s youth population — approximately one billion young people — currently live. Many developing countries are already experiencing increased food and water insecurity, loss of infrastructure and livelihoods, and displacement and health risks, despite their minimal contributions to global greenhouse gas emissions.
Furthermore, when climate impacts hit communities around the world, they amplify and reproduce gender inequalities. Girls and young women are more likely to be pulled out of education when climate shocks occur and families struggle with limited resources or an increased unpaid care burden. They are also more vulnerable to gender-based violence in the aftermath of extreme weather events and more at risk to lose their livelihoods because of climate change impacts.
The climate crisis therefore raises issues of intergenerational, North-South and gender equity that profoundly affect the lives and prospects of the world’s youth. Many young people are extremely alarmed and anxious about the known and unknown consequences that climate change will have on their future, from where they will live and what education they will receive to what they will do to earn a living and even whether they will have children of their own.
Despite this, it is crucial to move beyond viewing young people only as vulnerable to a warming world and to recognize their pivotal roles as leaders in climate action.
Today’s children and young people will face more heatwaves, floods, wildfires and crop failures over their lifetimes than previous generations. Photo: Clara Wetzel / Youth4Climate
Girls are more likely to be pulled out of education when climate shocks occur and families struggle with limited resources or an increased unpaid care burden. Photo: UNDP Malawi
What role do young people play in tackling climate change?
As the largest generation in history, today’s young people, in all their diversity, have crucial roles to play in tackling climate change, from their local communities all the way to the global stage. They are advocates and community leaders, researchers and educators, innovators and entrepreneurs helping to build more resilient and sustainable societies around the world.
At the local level, young people are developing solutions to tackle climate change and adapt to its impacts, from promoting renewable energy and sustainable agriculture to advancing ecosystem restoration and circular economy to strengthening climate resilience and peace and security. Their involvement is crucial to the success and longevity of climate solutions and to shaping societies in ways that can withstand an increasingly unpredictable future.
Young people also play a critical role in shaping ambitious climate policies. Despite being significantly underrepresented in decision-making processes, young people have helped to elevate climate change to the forefront of public and political agendas. Their demands for an inclusive and just transition to a low-carbon future have shaped both national policies and international climate negotiations convened by the United Nations, through constituencies such as YOUNGO.
Some young people have also been leading efforts for climate justice and intergenerational equity in courtrooms. One of the most significant examples is the work of the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, a movement of young people from Pacific Islands that sought to obtain an advisory opinion on climate change from the International Court of Justice. This effort ultimately led to the adoption of a United Nations General Assembly resolution that recognizes countries have an obligation to avoid causing significant damage to the climate and the environment and to follow through on their existing pledges under the Paris Agreement. Many other court cases around the world are showing that youth advocacy can shape national legal and political frameworks and strengthen accountability for climate action.
In Pakistan, young people are blending science, Indigenous knowledge and local stewardship to bring damaged reefs back to life. Photo: Clara Wetzel / Youth4Climate
In El Salvador, young people are raising awareness about environmental issues and helping restore mangroves and other degraded ecosystems. Photo: UNDP El Salvador
What values and priorities do young people have when it comes to climate action?
Young people recognize that climate change is deeply entwined with issues of human rights, social justice and global equity. As such, they advocate for climate action that is equitable, inclusive and accountable.
These values repeatedly emerge in the annual Global Youth Statement, the world’s largest youth-led climate policy document that puts together the collective demands of children and youth across the world and presents them to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In 2025, the document highlights five key priorities for governments, institutions and businesses:
- Deliver clear Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) with strengthened commitments and actions for a full, fast and fair phase-out of fossil fuels, in line with the best available science and legal obligations. This should be achieved by reducing emissions in all sectors and pursuing actions to accelerate the deployment of sustainable energy rooted in human rights, intergenerational equity, gender justice and the protection of the rights of nature, while ensuring a just transition.
- Recognize and institutionalize intergenerational equity as a legal and ethical obligation in all climate-related decisions. This obligation should be embedded systematically into the structures, processes and mandates of climate governance, ensuring the meaningful participation of children and youth throughout all decision-making processes through associated financial, logistical and safeguarding support mechanisms.
- Affirm that wars, genocides and conflicts cause environmental degradation, exacerbate climate change and deepen existing vulnerabilities. This calls for an immediate global ceasefire and halt to all armed conflicts and asserts that all civilians — especially children, youth and other vulnerable communities — must always be protected from the impacts of conflict and crisis.
- Provide accessible, equitable, transparent, grant-based and substantial climate finance, which should be made available for youth organizations, including those led by Indigenous Peoples, women, gender-diverse people and other marginalized groups. A reform of the international financial architecture to remove existing debt burdens and align finance with people-centric climate justice is also necessary.
- Elevate the political priority of climate change adaptation and provide financial support, technology transfer and capacity-building to enable all countries to formulate, implement and effectively monitor their National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). These plans should include approaches on health, food security, biodiversity, nature-based solutions, ecosystem conservation and restoration, early warning systems, cultural heritage and community-led resilience efforts.
These priorities reflect a powerful collective call for justice, transparency, resilience and peace, at a time of escalating climate urgency and rampant climate misinformation and disinformation, which erodes public trust and weakens the momentum for climate action.
Learning opportunities help young people engage more effectively in the implementation of climate solutions and participate in the emerging green economy. Photo: UNDP Jamaica / Talk Up Youth Media
What are the challenges young people face in pursuing climate action?
Despite their contributions to climate action, young people continue to face significant barriers that limit their ability to influence policy and scale solutions. This is especially true for young women, young people from Indigenous or rural communities, and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The most persistent challenge is limited access to decision-making spaces. While young people are increasingly being invited to participate in climate dialogues, their engagement is often consultative rather than influential, with limited opportunities to shape outcomes or monitor implementation.
Lack of access to resources is another major obstacle. Many young people struggle to secure the funding, technical support, mentorship and networks needed to develop and sustain climate initiatives.
Young people also face barriers related to knowledge and capacity. Climate policy processes can be highly technical and difficult to navigate, while information is often inaccessible, unavailable in local languages, or not tailored to young audiences.
Overall, the absence of enabling environments and weak accountability systems make it difficult for young people to exercise their leadership and skills and contribute to climate action.
In Serbia, just transition approaches are creating benefits for both the environment and the local community, especially for young people. Photo: Jelena Mitrovic / UNDP Serbia
In Liberia, electric tuk-tuks operated by women and powered by clean solar energy are transforming both mobility and livelihoods. Photo: Clara Wetzel / Youth4Climate
What kind of support do young people need to meaningfully engage in climate action?
Ensuring that young people can meaningfully participate in climate decision-making and the implementation of climate solutions is essential to upholding their rights and building a world that reflects the needs and aspirations of current and future generations. For this to happen, they need enabling conditions and engagement mechanisms that offer clear pathways to influencing climate policy and climate solutions. These include:
- Institutionalized opportunities to participate in climate decision-making. This means moving beyond tokenistic consultations toward formal mechanisms that allow youth to contribute to the design, implementation and monitoring of climate policies.
- Access to knowledge and green skills. Learning opportunities help young people engage more effectively in the implementation of climate solutions and participate in the emerging green economy.
- Access to finance and technical support. Having access to funding and partnerships means that young people can grow their initiatives beyond the pilot stage and scale up their impact.
- Transparent, inclusive and accountable systems. Young people want transparent feedback mechanisms that demonstrate how their contributions influence decisions. They also want to ensure that young women and young people from underrepresented groups, such as Indigenous Peoples and rural communities, are not left behind.
- Long-term investment in youth empowerment. Climate action will be a mainstay of this century, and new generations of young people need to be able to influence, implement and monitor it. This requires long-term investment and planning to ensure continuous support.
Solar systems are providing reliable, clean electricity for schools in Afghanistan, helping create a more effective learning environment for young students. Photo: UNDP Afghanistan
Summer camps equip young students in Georgia with the green skills necessary for building a more sustainable future. Photo: Gela Bedianashvili / UNDP Georgia
How is UNDP supporting young people to engage in and lead on climate action?
UNDP supports youth engagement in climate action through an integrated approach that combines policy support, capacity development, financing and partnerships at the national, regional and global levels.
Under the Climate Promise, UNDP works with governments and youth networks to ensure that young people’s perspectives inform climate decision-making. For example, with funding from Belgium, UNDP has supported young people in six countries — Burundi, Guinea, Kenya, Morocco, Panama and Zimbabwe — to meaningfully engage in the planning and implementation of national climate plans.
UNDP also works to improve access to funding, mentorship, technical support and partnerships that enable young people to develop and scale climate solutions. Through initiatives such as Generation17, developed in partnership with Samsung, and Youth4Climate, funded by Italy, UNDP supports youth-led innovation while helping connect local action with national and global climate priorities.
At the regional level, initiatives such as the Youth Empowerment in Climate Action Platform (YECAP), under the UNDP Youth Moonshot, create opportunities for young leaders to engage directly with policymakers and advance youth-inclusive climate governance across Asia and the Pacific. For example, through the Regional Youth Parliament on Climate Action, young leaders, negotiators and activists contribute to policy discussions and help strengthen accountability and representation in climate decision-making. Meanwhile, in Arab States, through the Green Growth and Jobs Accelerator Programme (GGJAP), UNDP supports young people in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia to advance green entrepreneurship and sustainability solutions. By connecting them with private sector partners, the programme enables young people to develop practical responses to business sustainability challenges and contribute to green innovation and economic transformation. To date, 150 young people have developed 60 sustainability solutions, many of which have been adopted by businesses across the region.
At the local level, UNDP works in countries around the world to create an enabling environment for young people to advance climate solutions. In Bangladesh, UNDP is supporting young people to adopt climate-smart agricultural practices that increase climate resilience such as planting saline-resistant rice varieties and pioneering spirulina farming. Meanwhile, in Uruguay, UNDP is working with eight youth centres to raise awareness about climate change and empower young people to get involved in climate action, including through music production.
UNDP also develops tools, learning opportunities and platforms that equip young people with the knowledge and skills needed to engage in climate governance and action. These include resources such as the Youth for Climate Action self-paced online course developed in partnership with ECO House Global.
https://climatepromise.undp.org/news-and-stories/young-people-are-key-solving-climate-crisis-heres-why