2020 may have put a halt to many events and conferences, but the momentum to pursue climate action never stops. We were thrilled to see more than 500 participants worldwide tune in live for our first episode of the monthly #Youth4ClimateLive Series on 26 June 2020. This inaugural session featured panelists Marie-Claire Graf of YOUNGO; Elizabeth Wathuti, Founder of the Green Generation Initiative in Kenya; and Selina Leem, climate warrior of the Marshall Islands. It was invigorating to hear them share their experience working in youth-government collaboration, promoting nature and advocating for vulnerable communities. In case you missed it, here is a recap of what went down!

Giving Youth a Space at the Negotiation Table

Our panelists agreed unanimously that there is a pressing need for young and grassroots voices to be represented in international conferences, and our leaders hear that. The session opened with addresses from Sergio Costa, Italy’s Minister for Environment, Land and Sea; Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change; and Alok Sharma, President of COP26. They encouraged young people to keep advocating for climate action and imagine a new normal that is more focused on sustainability. Sharma noted that COP26 would work with global partners to raise global action in five areas: clean energy, clean transport, climate finance, nature-based solutions and adaptation & resilience.

Marie-Claire Graf stressed that young climate champions want to be seen and treated as equals with political leaders and be involved in negotiations. Even though youth may not understand the technicalities of negotiation, they are able to bring insights from the ground and are full of energy and ideas. Furthermore, they are informed about the news and are absolutely willing to pick up the nuances of negotiation. Graf called for leaders to place more trust in young people. If they were allowed a spot at the negotiating table, youth would be able to better channel their energy into contributing, rather than wasting it fighting to be taken seriously. She added that there is something everyone – be they negotiators or observers – can learn from one another, and called for participants in international conferences to step out of their titles and approach one another as human beings.

Selina Leem echoed such sentiments and called for participants to ask conference organisers to invite members of vulnerable communities to be part of the conversation. Both she and Elizabeth Wathuti added that their hometowns are suffering disproportionately from the climate crisis and that these communities have a collective sense of urgency to save their homes that is not reflected at the global scale. Leem touched on the privilege other members of the global community have and urged them to speak up and help these communities in need.

Engaging Local Communities in Climate Action

Leem shared that her community has long used storytelling to cope with the trauma brought on by the climate crisis, and that the Marshall Islands Government is fully supportive of youth leaders speaking up on domestic and international platforms. Wathuti added that her work also involves engaging the community to develop a passion for nature that will encourage them to protect it for survival. Exposing people, especially children, to the wonders of nature can have amazing results. Wathuti shared that her work involves enlisting members of the community in reforestation to ensure food security. This is just an example of nature-based solutions, which Wathuti wants to become more widespread in the days to come.

Wathuti also urged everyone to start joining networks on biodiversity conservation. We cannot leave anyone behind with this movement, she said, as the community can only depend on themselves to protect nature. While this sounds extreme, Leem commented that there is a need to be firm about the magnitude of the climate crisis, as lifelines of entire communities are at stake.

Moving on: Contribute YOUR Voice to the Conversation

This is just the beginning. Through the #Youth4ClimateLive Series, we aim to equip youth leaders with tangible ideas and proposals to bring to the Pre-COP26 summit in Milan next year. UN Youth Envoy Jayathma Wickramanayake is inviting YOU to be part of this movement by submitting your plan to tackle the climate crisis as if you were your country’s Minister for the Environment. Record and post your suggestions on social media, and be sure to tag your message with #Youth4ClimateLive so we can hear you!

Meanwhile, follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @Connect4Climate for updates on this month’s #Youth4ClimateLive Series broadcast, coming up in the very near future!

To watch the first episode in full, check out our YouTube channel.

Youth have always been drivers of social change, and at this critical moment for climate ambition, it’s more urgent than ever to ensure that the voices of young people are not only listened to but acted upon. While COP26 has been postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 crisis, now is the chance for youth climate leaders to build momentum and make sure that when they arrive in Milan next year for the Youth4Climate Pre-COP26 summit, they come ready with tangible ideas and proposals to present to world leaders.

REGISTER FOR THE #YOUTH4CLIMATELIVE LAUNCH: https://bit.ly/youth4climate-live-series

As longtime believers in the power of young people, we are thrilled to be involved in the production of the all-new #Youth4ClimateLive Series, hosted by the Italian Ministry for Ecological Transition (MITE) in collaboration with Connect4Climate and the Office of Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth to drive engagement in the run-up to the 2021 pre-COP26 in Milan, Italy and COP26. Launching this June 26, the series will continue through 2021, offering nearly a year’s worth of content for you to tune in to!

Reserva: The Youth Land Trust (@ReservaYLT on Twitter & Instagram) is a global youth-oriented conservation organisation. In partnership with Rainforest Trust and Ecuadorian NGO Fundación EcoMinga, Reserva aims to empower young people to change our planet for the better through projects in three impact areas—conservation, education, and storytelling. We are a group of young naturalists, lead by founder Callie Broaddus, who believe that young people not only have a powerful voice, but the financial means to make real environmental change happen. Currently, Reserva is composed of more than 50 Youth Council members from over 15 countries, all working together for a more sustainable future. I have met some amazing young people through my role as Media Officer!

Our flagship project is to create the world’s first entirely youth-funded nature reserve in the Ecuadorian Chocó Rainforest: a biodiversity hotspot with many endemic species and a beautiful example of one of the world’s most threatened ecosystems. About a quarter of all plant species found there are endemic, and the region has the highest concentration of endemic birds in the world!

In September 2019, Callie, Lucy Houliston and Carter Ries joined a research expedition led by our partner, Fundación EcoMinga, to the site of our proposed nature reserve. The photographs that they took showcase the immense biodiversity present in Ecuadorian cloud forests. These forests are home to iconic species like howler monkeys and Andean (spectacled) bears –- both listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, a comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. These under-explored forests have even revealed several new species of frog, orchid and rodent. Who knows what other new species we could find? You can read more about the expedition on the ‘Field Notes’ section of the Reserva website.

To give more young people a voice, Reserva: The Youth Land Trust has also launched the ‘1 Million Letters Campaign’ (#1MillionLetters). We want young people (26 and under) to write us a letter about why they love nature and why we should protect our wild places. These letters can be emailed to us as a photograph or mailed to P.O. Box 57277, Washington, D.C., 20037. There is a letter template available on our website. Rainforest Trust matches every letter that we receive with $3 towards our youth-funded reserve project. We are planning to bring all of the letters to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s upcoming summit COP15, to let world leaders hear what young people have to say.

We fundraise through our website and social media presence. Recently, we held our first ever Concert for Conservation, an idea that came from Youth Council member James Miller. This virtual event, hosted by conservationist and TV presenter Lizzie Daly, brought musicians and conservationists together for a fantastic evening of entertainment, raising over $1000 towards our reserve project! There is a recording available on Rainforest Trust’s Instagram.

Every dollar that we raise is matched by Rainforest Trust and, in total, we have already raised over $50,000 towards our final goal! Just $3 is enough to purchase a classroom-sized area of rainforest. Those that donate to this project can print out an awesome certificate on our website.

We are passionate about preserving our Earth’s wilderness areas for future generations to enjoy. We are proof that young people can make a measurable difference and that, regardless of age, you can too. Please consider donating to, or fundraising for, Reserva: The Youth Land Trust. Facebook fundraisers are a brilliant way to raise money for the environment; to create one for Reserva, choose Rainforest Trust as the charity and include ‘Reserva’ somewhere in the bio. If you are over 26, you can still make a difference by setting up a fundraiser or donating on behalf of a young person.

When we work towards a common goal, the tangible positive impacts that we can have on the environment are incredible. Real change does not happen overnight, but through individuals taking small steps in unison towards a better future. Picking up litter, taking public transport, donating to Reserva… it all helps. Together, we can secure our planet a green future.

Banner image, thumbnail image and top two embedded images courtesy of Callie Broaddus. Lowermost embedded image courtesy of Sally Proctor.

Since 1993, the world has recognized May 22 as the UN’s International Day for Biological Diversity, an occasion for raising awareness of Earth’s millions of species and the ecosystems they inhabit as well as an opportunity to foster concrete action in their defense.

The official theme of Biodiversity Day 2020, “Our solutions are in nature,” speaks to our deep connection with our planet as well as our need to protect it. It calls on us to preserve the rich variety of plants and animals Earth harbors, clean up our environment, and stem the tide of climate change.

In keeping with these goals, the Convention on Biological Diversity has issued a worldwide call for submissions of videos and written messages addressing this theme and how we see it reflected in our personal lives. Make your voice heard: send in your story!

Our own Connect4Climate social media channels will also be abuzz for Biodiversity Day. An immersive #InvestInNature World Bank story from Ethiopia just went live, as did the launch post for a new collective poem in which individual lines of poetry contributed by our global audience will be curated to form a unified reflection on nature and the environment. The final poem will be revealed for World Environment Day on June 5. Over the coming days and weeks, stay tuned also for a series of inspiring #Youth4Climate stories, fresh #ClimateQuiz content (including a biodiversity-themed crossword), and moving quotes from #Leaders4Climate.

Hosted by Colombia in partnership with Germany, this year’s World Environment Day will be celebrated virtually on June 5 with the official theme of biodiversity. Activities all week long will build momentum leading into the big day. To help drive ambitious action for the environment, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has launched the “Time for Nature” campaign, which invites global citizens to “reimagine our relationship with nature; and put it at the heart of our decision making.” 

To this end, UNEP has compiled a comprehensive World Environment Day action toolkit with suggestions on how everyone from teachers and youth activists to faith leaders and policy makers can contribute to the push for a greener future, both through committing to take action and by contributing to the discussion online with the hashtag #ForNature. And if you’re looking to go the extra mile and host an official online event, let the organizers know by completing and submitting this simple form!

Here at Connect4Climate, we’ll be broadcasting live in the run-up to World Environment Day with a series of brand-new #C4CLive conversations with bold young climate champions. We’ll also be launching a full-size #ClimateQuiz crossword puzzle on the themes of biodiversity and nature as well as a fun Climate Connections game to further test your knowledge.

C4C’s global partners are getting in on the festivities too. Our #Youth4Climate allies at Reserva are putting on a Biodiversity Day Concert for Conservation via Instagram Live (May 22, 2:00 PM Eastern, @RainforestTrust), while our #Film4Climate friends at Planet On are teaming up with Colombia’s Unión Festival Digital to deliver a special May 30 live-streamed screening of Slater Jewell-Kemker’s documentary Youth Unstoppable, followed by an interview with Slater herself. Check it out!

However you choose to get engaged this Biodiversity Week and World Environment Day this year, know that you are not alone. There are millions and millions of passionate people worldwide who share your vision of a sustainable planet and a resilient, biodiverse future. Let’s take action and make it happen!

All photos courtesy of Kaia Rose, Connect4Climate.

It’s the 50th anniversary of Earth Day this week, and all over the world the climate community is coming together virtually around the importance of creating a safe and sustainable future for everyone. There are lots of ways to get involved while #StayingHome—so many, in fact, that we’ve made an Earth Week Bingo card to help you keep track!

The centerpiece of the week will be Earth Day Live, an all-day stream put on by the Earth Day Network on April 22 featuring messages, performances and calls to action from #Youth4Climate activists like Licypriya Kangujam, political figures like John Kerry and Al Gore, musicians like Nahko, and celebrity climate advocates like Zac Efron. Sign up now to get email updates as Earth Day draws closer!

On Wednesday, we’ll also be rolling out a special #C4CLive interview on Instagram with a representative from the Mama Initiative, a group of young musicians who promote solidarity and #ClimateAction through beautiful original music and covers. Stay tuned throughout the week for our series of “Earth Day 2020 in :20” videos, in which climate advocates have 20 seconds to describe what their Earth Day action is. We invite you to share  your own Earth Day actions—just remember that you only have 20 seconds to tell us about them! When you post your video, be sure to tag @Connect4Climate and #EarthRise.

Even beyond the video content, we’ll have plenty to keep you engaged and entertained this Earth Week! Our #SustainabilityHacks #AtHome series offers tips on staying sustainable amid COVID quarantine measures, while the Earth Rise Collective Poem challenge asks our global community to contribute their vision for our planet’s recovery by telling us what #EarthRise means to each of them. In our #ClimateQuiz series, we just launched our first C4C crossword puzzle and we’ll be ending this week with a set of Earth Week-inspired emoji puzzles.

Many of our partners have big plans of their own, including Fashion Revolution Week (all week), Fashinnovation (Apr. 20-21), We Don’t Have Time (Apr. 20-25), Stand Up for Climate Comedy Night (Apr. 22), Greta Thunberg’s Talks for Future (Apr. 24), the UNDP’s Mission 1.5 (all week), and our aforementioned friends at the Mama Initiative (all week).  You can also become a citizen scientist by downloading the Earth Challenge 2020 app and inputting data about the air quality and plastic pollution in your community.

All of these activities represent a tiny fraction of the climate engagement you can expect to see across every corner of the internet this week. We encourage you to add your perspectives and ideas to the conversation, and above all to have a safe, sustainable, and inspirational Earth Week.

Every March, the D.C. Environmental Film Festival brings tens of thousands of filmgoers together in the U.S. capital for a celebration of both cinema and the planet we all call home. Mirroring the mission of C4C’s Film4Climate initiative, the DCEFF not only shares moving stories on the environment but promotes concrete action to help the planet, “inspiring understanding and stewardship… through the power of film.”

This year, the festival is presenting two Connect4Climate-supported productions: Slater Jewell-Kemker’s new cut of her climate action documentary Youth Unstoppable and Jared P. Scott’s trans-African environmental odyssey The Great Green Wall. Youth Unstoppable will be screened on March 15 at 7:00 PM EDT at the Carnegie Institution for Science and on March 19 at the same time at American University; The Great Green Wall will be presented at the Carnegie Institution on March 14 at 7:00 PM. The first Youth Unstoppable screening and the Great Green Wall screening will be followed by moderated discussions with the films’ respective directors.

Youth Unstoppable is a vivid on-the-ground account of the burgeoning worldwide Youth4Climate movement. Fastidiously compiled across an eleven-year span by Slater Jewell-Kemker, a youth climate activist in her own right who embarked on this ambitious project when she was just fifteen years old, the film speaks to the power of young people to seize control of their own futures and band together to push for sustainable policy as well as everyday lifestyle changes.

Get your Youth Unstoppable tickets BELOW or at https://bit.ly/3a8FF3U 

The Great Green Wall, executive produced by Oscar-nominated director Fernando Meirelles, follows the journey of Malian music icon Inna Modja as she travels east to west across the Sahel region of Africa. Modja connects with those she meets along the way through song, and learns of the importance—both practical and symbolic—of the titular Great Great Wall campaign, an ambitious tree-planting movement aiming to create a wall of solid green across the heart of the continent. The film is produced by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) with the support of Connect4Climate and partners.

  Get your FREE Great Green Wall tickets BELOW or at https://bit.ly/3a8FF3U 

These two films embody Film4Climate’s commitment to communicating the urgent need for united climate action through the arts. Youth Unstoppable and The Great Green Wall offer poignant, humane perspectives on those directly impacted by climate change and challenge viewers to act themselves in the planet’s defense.

We hope you will join us for these screenings in Washington, D.C. next month.

Youth Unstoppable tickets

Great Green Wall FREE tickets

Banner/thumbnail image courtesy of Pixabay photographer Skeeze. 

Connect4Climate was honored to oversee a #YouthTakeover at COP25 featuring the four rising climate communicators who won this year's Global Youth Video Competition! All four of these winners—Callie Broaddus, Raquel Gaião Silva, Rafael Forsetto and Kiane Assis—share memories from the conference, and what the experience meant to them, in their own words in the reflections below:

CALLIE BROADDUS

It took ten minutes to walk from one end of Madrid’s IFEMA conference center to the other—that is, if we didn’t stop to snag the handout of tree-planting chocolate, sing a carol with “Sustaina-Claus,” read the signs at the daily youth protests, or listen to the 20 indigenous people demonstrating in the entrance hall. It was a massive event, and for first-time COP-goers, a tad overwhelming.

This year’s Global Youth Video Competition had four winners, so Connect4Climate’s #YouthTakeover was a group effort. We connected each morning over WhatsApp to determine who would cover and attend which events (the size of the conference center often made it inconvenient to meet in person). The joint effort meant that we could each cover events specifically related to our own fields of work. For me, this meant attending events on nature-based solutions and biodiversity; for Rafael and Kiane, events on social justice and migration; and for Raquel, all things ocean.

The panels I attended repeatedly stressed several key points: We need to protect our tropical and temperate forests; prevent exploitation of our peatlands, wetlands, and marine kelp forests; and plant trees in bulk if we’re to make sizable strides toward climate commitments. Given that we are in the midst of a biodiversity crisis—one often called the sixth mass extinction—I expected discussions on the balance between climate and ecosystems to be more prominent on panels, and less audience-generated.

One common thread that wove each panel together was a vocabulary of UN-centric terms and acronyms: CBD, UNFCCC, UNCCD, NDCs, SDGs and more.The ability to decipher this mass of letters proved essential to comprehending every panel—and even most coffee-line conversations.

Having the opportunity to attend and document COP from a “youth climate reporter” point of view was incredibly valuable for my personal understanding of conservation on an international scale. Having an energized and diverse team enabled each of us to both cover the event comprehensively and leave with strong personal takeaways. For my part, I’ll be making an acronym dictionary and lining up my biodiversity-related audience questions before attempting to navigate COP26.

RAQUEL GAIÃO SILVA

I am back home and I still can’t believe what happened during my time at COP25. Two weeks listening to alarming information and talking about nature-based solutions. Two weeks witnessing testimonials of populations already being impacted by climate change. Two weeks listening to scientific reports that demand action starting yesterday. Two weeks nourishing the desire for greater ambition. Two weeks that felt like months.

Over those two weeks, I experienced myriad situations I could never have imagined in my wildest dreams, from meeting Sylvia Earle in the corridor and telling her my thoughts on ocean-based climate solutions to interviewing and discussing climate finance with the Managing Director of the World Bank to speaking with the Administrator of the UNDP, who so avidly listened to our stories with full attention.

It was an intense and inspiring ride. And the most amazing part is that even if I didn’t meet such interesting people, the simple fact of having UNFCCC and the Connect4Climate team there to answer the million questions I had with kind smiles was all I could ask for.

These two weeks will stay on my mind for a long time to come, and will definitely influence my next projects, my next actions, and my next steps.

"My home and my people drive me to take action... Knowing that in 20 years there might not be islands in the Pacific and knowing that we have futures to secure and a responsibility to those who come after us."

--Genevieve Jiva, Coordinator at Pacific Islands Climate Action Network, Fiji

"I'm taking action by occupying space at COP25, raising awareness and by letting folks know that a global temperature increase of 2 degrees is more of a reality of 8-10 degrees for people in my community and the Canadian Arctic."

--Robert Comeau, Associate at Youth Climate Lab, Canadian Arctic

"If you want to see a change in the world you have to be the change you want to see... I'm taking action by making climate change my career, I work with the Lebanese ministry of environment focusing on climate planning, climate mainstreaming and on the implementation of the NDC targets."

--Mary Awad, Climate Transparency Expert, Lebanon

“I am here at CO25 to demand global climate action and also to push for more youth engagement in the climate decision-making processes. I'm taking action because I want a sustainable future that works for all of us… a future where we stop fighting nature and stop threatening our life support system."

--Elizabeth Wanjiru Wathuti, Environment and Climate Activist, Kenya

“This world is our place and it needs us to act now - it doesn't need words, it needs concrete actions. Leave behind the idea that your action will not change anything: no matter your age, no matter your place, you are part of the change.  It's up to you which side of the change you're on."

--Benjamin Carvajal, COY15 coordinator, founder of Limpiando Inconsciencias and Uno Punto Cinco, Chile