Empowering youth in climate action

The programme, ‘Unlocking the power of youth to develop equity in net zero governance’, aims to bring global youth expertise into climate decision making, ensuring young people and marginalised voices can be included. 

It takes the form of a research project, where youth participants will participate in workshops and share their thoughts on equity and net zero with standard setters in order to make a real impact on business and corporate climate action. 

Kaya Axelsson, Alexis McGivern, and Dr Matilda Becker, from Oxford Net Zero and the Smith School, will work alongside The British Standards Institution (BSI) to bring youth climate justice representatives across six continents to develop equity criteria for net zero governance. These will be produced with UK-Plc to address the policy gap that fails to define how companies can address equity concerns when they decarbonise their footprints. 

The programme is funded through the Advancing Capacity for Climate Environment Social Science (ACCESS) Flex Fund of the ESRC.
 

Kaya Axelsson, Head of Policy and Partnerships at Oxford Net Zero, says

 Youth are the engine of the global climate movement yet are frequently left out of the governance processes that determine our net-zero futures. With funding from the ACCESS Grant, we’re excited to begin our work with global youth, UK businesses and the British Standards Institution to define what an ‘equitable’ transition to net-zero might mean, and how corporates can enact this under the guidance of the voluntary net-zero standards landscape

If you are age 18-35, visit the project webpage to find out more about the application process for this exciting new programme. Deadline: 14 October 2024. 

This programme is part of a research project and you will be compensated for your time. By participating you will:

• Have the opportunity to make a real impact on business and corporate climate action today
• Learn what the international climate standards landscape is and how it works
• Develop negotiation skills for different contexts, including with youth peers, businesses and standards bodies
• Have the opportunity to build networks with like-minded peers, academics, businesses and standards-experts 

Last year, the Summer Sustainability, Climate & Environmental Education course (Summer SCENE) and the Global Youth Climate Training were launched, focusing respectively on the foundations of policy making and preparing youth for COP climate negotiations.

This year, we were delighted to receive funding from the ClimateWorks Foundation to deliver these two hugely popular programmes at no cost to participants for two more years.

On Summer SCENE:

• The programme is run by the Smith School’s executive education team, and led by Dr Caitlin McElroy. We received 640 applications from 74 different countries, for around 50 seats.   
• The top five countries with most applications were India, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Uganda.
• Most of our applicants were aged 24-30 years old.
  
  Find out more and register your interest for the 2025 cohort!  

On the Global Youth Climate Training 2024:

• The programme is a partnership between the Global Youth Coalition, Oxford Net Zero and the Smith School, led by Alexis McGivern. Find out more about the course.
• In 2024 we received more than 10,000 applications from 135 countries
• Of the 285 successful applicants, 227 identify as being part of the Most Affected People and Areas and 69 identify as a part of an Indigenous Community.

• Nearly half of the programme participants are under 25 years old.

  Watch the 2023 and 2024 courses free of charge on YouTube!

Professor Mette Morsing, Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment , says:

It’s crucial to provide accessible and quality climate education to younger audiences to raise awareness of climate issues and to help the younger population understand the breadth of climate subjects and their inter-connectedness. 

Equally, it’s important to actively embed youth voices into climate decision making for better policy outcomes and impact. It’s a two-way learning and we are extremely proud of this work