A community of educators empowering students to take climate action
NEWS & STORIES
November 2020 should have seen world leaders coming together to act on the climate crisis at the COP26 Summit in Glasgow. Instead, thousands of students from around the UK united online for the Youth Climate Summit, a week of climate learning, discovery and action.
The Youth Climate Summit took place over five themed days and was virtually hosted by primary and secondary schools from around the UK. It aimed to empower teachers to respond to youth anxiety about the climate crisis and turn student concern and passion into positive action.
From seashore safaris, to eco raves, to Green Operas, the Youth Climate Summit saw 163 free online sessions from 90 supporting organisations including WWF, Greenpeace, the Marine Conservation Society, Oxford University, Imperial College, Tesco and Lego.
160+ sessions, 90 organisations, 10 host schools, 33 youth ambassadors
The Summit was hosted here on the Transform Our World teacher resource hub, which is coordinated by environmental charity Global Action Plan. A team of over 30 Youth Ambassadors from all around the UK helped to host sessions, interview guests, talk to the press and spread the word about the Summit on social media.
The Let’s Go Zero campaign - launched during the Youth Climate Summit - was a call to action throughout the week for schools to pledge their commitment to be zero carbon by 2030.
Feedback from our Youth Ambassadors:
“Thank You so much !!!! 🙏🏼what an amazing opportunity, meeting new people, gaining experience and knowledge in this area, I loved every second of it!! 😊😊”
“thank you so much for this incredible opportunity I have absolutely loved it and given me so much hope for the future! thank you for all you’ve done”
“I loved working with you all it’s been so much fun meeting young people from all over the UK! 😊”
Highlights from the Youth Climate Summit:
The finale event was hosted by Force of Nature founder Clover Hogan & involved a high profile panel, YCS host schools and Youth Ambassadors. Host schools presented their summit highlights and Youth Ambassadors presented the panel with 10 calls for action (2 from each summit theme) that they had determined throughout the week for the panel to debate and viewers to vote on. The Youth Climate Summit audience then voted on which five actions they supported the most:
- Set up specialist protection areas for all carbon sinks such as peatlands, forests etc. with a fund that businesses impacting these areas pay into
- All new schools to be carbon zero, government and business to help all existing schools achieve carbon zero by 2030
- Stop subsidising farming that harms the planet and instead subsidise good farming practices such as regenerative farming and polycultures
- Business and government to accelerate the circular economy
- Government and business to make good on the green recovery they keep talking about - starting now, especially with green jobs.
Our Youth Ambassadors took these calls and presented them to business and government at the Sustainable Innovation Forum.
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Access catch up content from the Transform Our World Youth Summit
As a Transform Our World user, you can access the content from the Transform Our World Youth Summit and catch up on the content across three themed days, looking at individual actions we can do, people in power we can influence and the importance of living our true values.
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All the best,
The Transform Our World team
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All content © 2024 Global Action Plan, except for partner content which belongs to the linked organisations. Global Action Plan co-ordinates Transform Our World and is a charity registered in England and Wales number 1026148, and in Scotland number SC041260. Tel: 0204 566 9904