Government officials and other decisionmakers will meet next month to set the agenda for the next United Nations climate conference, COP29, in November. As with each global conference in this series, stretching back nearly 30 years, we must once again confront the ways in which international climate negotiations exclude young people from decision-making about their futures.

Youth: Excluded from Policies on Climate and Peace

Coverage emerging from the final days at the U.N. climate conference (COP28) last year prominently featured images of youth-led demonstrations. These activists were aware that, while young voices might be kept out of the formal negotiations, their images during those final hours of decision-making would flicker across the world.

Young people have grown up confronting the enormous impacts, direct and indirect, of the climate crisis. UNICEF research finds 1 billion children live in countries at “extremely high risk” of worsening heatwaves, cyclones, water scarcity, lead contamination and other environmental threats. Of the world’s 1.8 billion people between the ages of 10 and 24, nearly 90% live in developing or conflict-affected states where climate change erodes societies’ abilities to maintain peace. Youth (who generally in these discussions include people under 30) are burdened with not only the consequences of climate change today, but also the psychological toll of a deteriorating globe.

With nearly half of the world’s population under 30, youth are a force that must be represented in decision-making spaces. Far beyond a few globally recognized figures like Sweden’s Greta Thunberg and Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai, young climate leaders work tirelessly at local, regional and global levels. They include Hassan Yasin, a Somali activist who co-founded a youth-led environmental organization, or Shamma Al Mazrui, a United Arab Emirates government minister and climate envoy, amongst countless others. Young people’s participation in decision-making can build trust in institutions, advance innovative ideas and form sustainable solutions to build stability, security and resilience across the globe. With global research indicating a loss of trust in our societal institutions, engaging youth is critical to averting the most dire risks of runaway climate change: polarized societies, misinformation, a rise in authoritarian movements and more.

The international conferences and government policy meetings that for decades have guided our world’s inadequate response to climate change have either ignored youth or treated them as passive victims of climate shocks and conflict rather than active, legitimate participants in policymaking. Even when powerful institutions include young people in such decision-making spaces, they often do so only to appear responsive — a practice that activists call “youthwashing.” Only 1% of multilateral climate fund projects serving the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement have involved youth under 18 in program implementation, and young people often lack the funds, resources, mentorship and platform to influence decision-making.

How Youth Lead Positive Change

While young people face political, resource and financial barriers, they are still building their own paths to change. Across Somalia, erratic flooding and drought threaten agriculture and economic development, fueling migration and conflict over scarce resources. With over 70% of Somalis under age 30, youth civil society organizations, and leaders like Hassan Yasin, are confronting these climate impacts. Still, Yasin has emphasized, “we need young people from Somalia sitting at the decision-making tables of negotiations.” Yasin co-founded the Somali Greenpeace Association in 2019 to counter climate threats and promote sustainable, equitable development. Yasin’s organization educates communities about climate change and successfully advocated for Somalia’s government to create a ministry focused solely on climate change and environmental issues.

Young people are policy innovators. During the most recent global climate conference, young leaders produced a Global Youth Climate Statement, incorporating ideas from 700,000 youth across 150 countries. This document recommends urgent priorities to improve the world’s still-insufficient response to climate change — and its worsening of violent conflict and other human security challenges. The recommendations center around five key areas, including equity, conflict prevention, displacement, peacebuilding and diplomacy. Young people also have particular insights about climate, peace and security risks in their own backyards, and have shared ideas with security institutions like NATO on how to better address climate change.

Three Opportunities for U.S. Leadership

The United States can and should take three opportunities to move beyond youthwashing and promote genuine youth engagement on the critical issues of climate, peace, and security. These options are to:

Include youth as a part of the U.S. negotiating team on the Paris Agreement. National negotiating teams are the main drivers of global climate policymaking — and the United States must learn from nations and institutions that already are integrating youth into policymaking. Last year, as the United Arab Emirates hosted the global COP28 conference, it named 100 youth to an inaugural International Youth Climate Delegate Program. The Emirates also institutionalized the role of an international youth envoy within the leadership implementing the world’s main climate treaty, the 30-year-old U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. YOUNGO, the U.N. youth-led constituency on climate, also provides a network and resources for young leaders, including a Climate, Peace and Security Working Group. A separate U.N. initiative equips youth with the negotiation and leadership skills and networking resources to serve as effective climate negotiators. A New Generation Program backed by U.N. agencies and non-government organizations supports young negotiators — from states including the Dominican Republic, Uganda, Fiji, Argentina, Malaysia and Tunisia — who have served as negotiators for their country’s delegations. The United States can follow this example and demonstrate its commitment to the substantive inclusion of youth in determining the global climate future.

Support youth engagement on climate, peace and security as a form of public diplomacy and peacebuilding. Young people’s greater exposure to climate degradation is transforming their security priorities toward sustaining a livable planet. In the United States, Pew Research found 46% of people aged 18-29 identifying climate change as a top security priority — the highest of any age group. These trends are also reflected globally by U.S. allies. The sharp focus on climate by those most at risk is reflected in NATO opinion polling that found climate change a top-three security concern among citizens of its member states. South Pacific defense ministers — from Australia, New Zealand, Chile, France, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Tonga — have for years identified climate change as the “single greatest threat” to their security. Worldwide, people — especially youth — who feel powerless against climate losses risk despair, distrust of institutions and even radicalization. Thus U.S. public diplomacy and peacebuilding should support genuine youth engagement on climate, including cohorts of young leaders working on climate security.

Honor commitments to finance global climate responses — and use U.S. influence in international bodies such as the World Bank to prioritize the funding of youth-led projects. Young activists increasingly call out nations like the United States for failing to deliver on their commitments to fund work to mitigate and adapt to impacts in communities most affected by climate change. Multilateral funding to combat climate change and its destruction remains insufficient overall, and in particular under-supports the essential contributions of youth. One example: analysis from 2007 to 2023 indicates that only 2.4 percent of projects explicitly consider youth under 18 in their implementation and objectives, and a mere 4 percent of projects identify young people as active agents of change. The United States can use its leverage in multilateral funds and development banks to change this by supporting the innovations of young people and the local communities they represent. It also can sustain bilateral funding to advance the same goals.

Elsa Barron is a research fellow at the Center for Climate and Security, an institute of the Council on Strategic Risks.