ClimateWorks Foundation will invest $2 million investment towards the youth climate justice movement, in a bid to plug the funding gap and bolster youth-led climate solutions. 

Currently, youth-led climate justice groups receive less than 1 per cent of total climate philanthropic funding.  

ClimateWorks warns that the lack of funding for young people inhibits their ability to ‘influence the structural changes needed to build resilient and thriving economies for all’.   

The funding will help establish a space for support and bring nine youth-led organisations together. 

Recipients will over the next two years develop a coordinated network of actors with youth climate leaders from around the world.  

‘The nine implementing partners will work with their communities to drive a just transition to a Paris-aligned future through resource sharing, capacity building, and skills development,’ said ClimateWorks. 

The nine youth-led climate groups are; Black Girl Environmentalist, Climate Vanguard, Oxford Smith School, Latin American Youth Climate Scholarship, Youth4Nature, Youth Climate Justice Fund, Youth on Root, UNFCCC Youth Climate Champions, and the Urban Movement Innovation Fund. 

Ati Viviam Villafaña, Indigenous youth from the Arhuaco People and Founder of the Latin American Youth Climate Scholarships, says a focus on BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of colour) youth is ‘crucial’. 

‘To omit their presence is to miss an essential perspective that could make a difference in the effectiveness and equity of solutions,’ she said. 

‘If youth-led climate justice movements remain underfunded, so will our future. Therefore, more funding and expanded opportunities for learning and capacity building can help multiply the wins younger generations have already achieved with limited resources,’ said Makeeba Browne, Chief of equity, justice, and culture at ClimateWorks Foundation. 

Shafi Musaddique is the news editor at Alliance magazine.