Involving Youth in Climate Finance to Build Climate Resilience

Authored By Princess Avianne Charles
Edited by Derrick Otim and Alice Finno

When climate activists and organizations speak on the importance of advancing climate resilience and initiatives, funding is a critical point of conversation. Climate finance is a focal point in strategizing climate adaptation and mitigation but for many groups - especially youth groups - they’re left out of opportunities for decision-making and discussion. Youth groups play a major role as stakeholders and driving forces that will in the future develop strategies and solutions for climate resilience. Climate resilience cannot be fully achieved without factoring in younger generations who are at the forefront of the climate crisis and will also lead future initiatives.

Climate finance has been a key topic throughout organizations and legislative bodies on a global scale. The commitment made by countries toward Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) has shown that adequate funding is needed to achieve these goals. Financing at a local, national, or transnational scale will greatly support actions and initiatives to climate change challenges and limit its effects but requires everyone to be factored in the decision-making, including youth.

The efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change and assist economies and communities in adapting to the existing changes particularly require financial allocation, as agreed in the Paris Agreement. This is to ensure that developed countries would provide financial resources to help developing countries toward their NDCs, mitigation and adaptation efforts, and mobilizing more climate finance. With this aim, there’s a great responsibility for countries to prioritize funding for those significantly impacted by climate change, such as those in the Global South. Working to close the persistent financial gaps has often left the involvement of youth organizations, entrepreneurs, advocates, and workers out of the picture. The Global Youth Climate Action Fund shared that, in a traditional sense, financing goes to existing organizations with limited youth involvement.

Building climate resilience in youth requires strengthening climate finance where applicable to youth-focused projects, activities, policies, and adaptation and mitigation measures. Nonetheless, very little has been done to shift from the current disregard for financing youth-based activities,leading to urgent demands for change. The UN Climate Change Conference of Youth (COY) has made a global youth statement with over 40,000 signatures demanding leaders abide by their pledges for a $100 billion climate finance flow, with a fair share of this going towards adaptation and mitigation actions to accommodate the local needs of developing and least-developed countries. This call echoes what many organizations and communities have shared: not enough is being done nor are the agreed allocations coming to fruition.

Youth-led groups and initiatives are not receiving the necessary financial support to work toward addressing the challenges that they face. This has led to incredibly pressing challenges that impact youth - especially children. A report by Children’s Environmental Rights Initiative stated, “35% of projects incorporate interventions to strengthen the climate and disaster resilience of essential social services anticipated to provide direct benefits to children. However, in the majority of cases, such projects fail to explicitly consider or involve children, and such sectoralinterventions constitute only a minorcomponent of overallprojectactivities and aretherefore thinly budgeted.”

Organizations and leaders who aren’t considering allocating funding to youth and youth-led initiatives are placing the younger generations at greater risk. Already tasked with dealing with climate disasters and events that will have long-lasting effects, youth groups are also dealing with the expectancy to lead future projects and actions with minimal resources. This is largely reflective of who’s benefiting from financial resources. As documented in An Analysis on The Availability of Climate Finance for Youth, 35 percent of funds reviewed to ensure that youth can access these opportunities equally are available globally, with the least in Southern African Development Community (SADC), Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Middle East. Of that percentile, 1 percent of funds were allocated to climate justice, 8 to mitigation, and 14 to adaptation. Additionally, they’ve reported the largest allocations toward grants and awards, at 54 and 11 percent respectively.

The recorded percentages for youth funding remain of concern. The report provided a key remark concerning such availability, “The fact that the amount of funding available is not often advertised means youth face difficulties filling in applications and budget proposals. In addition, the number of grants being provided is not large enough to cater to youth beneficiary needs. Even though youth are considered change-makers and pioneers of innovation, the size of the support is mostly micro, and it is mostly in kind. Such funding deters the amplification of youth-led actions.”

How can youth be equipped, empowered, and guided to tackle climate challenges and contribute to the necessary resources if the funding allocated for their goals and initiatives is insufficient? To further center youth and build their resilience, more must be done by leaders, public and private enterprises, and policy-makers. The Children’s Environmental Rights Initiative shared that some strategies to achieve this include prioritizing investments to strengthen the climate resilience of child-critical social services through child-responsive interventions and including child representatives in both local and national stakeholder consultations related to project proposals. Recommendations via the Analysis on The Availability of Climate Finance for Youth include standardizing access to climate finance, accelerating private sector engagement, increasing national support, and diversifying the various types of funding instruments.

A lot more is required when it comes to climate finance and incorporating youth. Supporting intergenerational equity and resources will meet the future and long-term needs of sustainability, which will significantly benefit youth groups in the long run. To further build climate resilience through climate finance, youth-led organizations and actions must be given increased funding opportunities to fulfill their aligned goals towards climate adaptation, education, mitigation, and support.

Role of Advocacy to Demand a Just Climate Financing

As there is an increase in recognition of the role of climate finance in strengthening climate adaptation and mitigation initiatives, the importance of advocacy is apparent. Climate advocacy has always been crucial in amplifying awareness and the calls for inclusion and sustainable measures. This too can be said for climate finance, as without it there would be significant gaps in funding and opportunities. What ties these two factors is the drive for change, being achievable through collective effort, awareness, and resources. The necessity of equitable and just climate financing is amplified through advocacy, depicting this as a focal point in achieving climate resilience.

Seeking opportunities and accessibility to climate financing has been a challenge that must be addressed. The clear outcomes from insufficient financial allocations to climate adaptation and mitigation continue to exacerbate the effects and, at large, place already vulnerable communities at even greater risk. Advocacy, as it relates to increased and accessible climate financing, relays that it is necessary to shift existing allocations from harmful practices and corporations that are exacerbating the detrimental effects to sustainable options and actions created by climate-centered organizations. For example, the UN reports that more financing has been allocated to fossil fuels than to investments in renewable energy. Numerous countries have very limited access to transition to more sustainable energy resources but must face the hazardous climate and environmental impacts at the hands of fossil fuel extraction. Advocating for climate finance is paramount, as it can lead to shifting current exploitative systems to one that is accessible, inclusive, and safer.

Advocacy efforts have made a significant impact on catalyzing change and strengthening movements and actions. Organizations such as the Open Society Foundations have paved a path toward this by operating as the world’s largest private funder of independent groups working for justice, including climate justice. They have provided opportunities for funding globally, making a commitment to climate justice and its associated movements. What they’ve also done is provide the opportunity for organizations to create opportunities of their own to develop their own strategies and platforms to take a stance against climate injustice. The path taken by Open Society Foundations has amplified the calls for increased financing not only through their contributions but also through recognizing that climate organizations need much more than what they’ve previously had access to. As they are continually encouraged and empowered through their actions, they also utilize their platforms to call for increased financing options at local, regional, and international levels.

Involving Youth in Climate Finance to Build Climate Resilience

Princess Avianne Charles

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