Published

2 years ago

April 9, 2024

Alice Rush

How do I become a youth activist? Two lessons learned and five ways to get started!

Two former Youth Environmental Activists have come back to join the Climate Generation Team. We took some time to ask them what lessons they learned as youth organizers and how others can get started.

How did you become a youth activist?

I was always passionate about environmental and food systems at school, and I started looking for groups to get involved with – that’s when I found YEA! (Youth Environmental Activists). Being in the YEA program changed the trajectory of my life – it showed me how to organize.

What did you learn?

Walking into my first YEA! meeting, I thought maybe I’d learn something new about climate change. By then, I had learned some things about climate change but didn’t understand climate justice. I came to the program with some understanding of food systems and was interested in joining a community of youth.

I remember being asked by another student, “What is it that you want to do in your community?” At that moment, I realized I’d never asked myself how and why I wanted to make a difference. I had never been asked what I wanted.

I want to build a world where young people are believed in and respected and where we embody the world we want to live in now. I want to live in a world where we can gain power for the many and enact justice.

I left that first YEA! meeting with a new sense of what could be. As I continued working with a group of students and organizing others, it led me to see myself as a leader. YEA! taught me how to organize my peers and neighbors. I learned what it meant to understand institutions and map power.

By the time I graduated from high school and the YEA! program, I understood my climate story and how I wanted to enact change in the world. Working in a group to organize is so powerful, and that was a big lesson learned for me.

Throughout my three years as a part of YEA! and Climate Generation, I gained a holistic climate justice education, and I began to take action and organize around the racist HERC trash burner. The same HERC trash burner we are still resisting today, almost ten years later. YEA! drove me to study political science so I understood political institutions and power more deeply.

A story is a powerful thing. My career path has led me to craft narratives to elevate the causes of nonprofit organizations, and now I’ve come full circle to advance the work of Climate Generation. When people understand the “personal” in a policy through a story – it builds trust, connection, engagement, and ultimately action. Climate Generation uplifts and inspires conversation through storytelling and organizing about what the climate movement needs right now – in our local community here in the Twin Cities in the YEA! program or on a global scale at COP.

Climate Generation puts so much into the youth, educators and community it serves. I can’t wait to start a new chapter of my story with you, Climate Generation!

How did you become a youth activist?

When I first learned about the concept of climate change, it was through the lens of the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood in Minneapolis. In 2018, there was a significant push to establish gardens in my neighborhood because Cedar residents wanted access to more fresh food and produce. Witnessing this immediate need, I wanted to help, but with limited resources and tools, and lacking in-depth knowledge, it felt like I couldn’t assist the people who mattered most to me.

It was during a visit to the lunchroom by the YEA! Coordinator that I was encouraged to attend a Wednesday meeting of YEA! to learn more about their work and how I could get involved in the climate movement.

Hearing those words for the first time, “How I could get involved,” made me feel empowered for the first time like I was able to be part of the larger solution to help my communities and others around me.

Climate justice is not just about saving the world; it encompasses the intersecting values of why we do this work and why young people have powerful and brilliant ideas to bring to the table, not just in presence alone but through action as well.

As the years went on, with my learning and involvement through YEA!, I became part of a larger coalition of students called “MN Youth Climate Strike,” where we organized a student-wide walkout demanding divestments from fossil fuel companies.

What did you learn?

The moment students left their classrooms to march to the capital to be heard and seen made me realize the sense of community, visibility, and being heard.

That’s when I recognized the importance of YEA! because that coordinator asked me one question, and now my life is forever changed.

Now, I am a Youth Coordinator for Climate Generation, and I am dedicated to this work because I believe that the climate movement will be an ongoing, ever-intersectional fight. I aim to disseminate knowledge about the climate crisis and what I’ve learned to educate and support communities, placing care and intention at the center.

Here are some ways you can start taking action as a youth activist:

Talk to your peers:
- Start by talking to your peers about it! A great way to get involved is to info share with you friends, peers and family members

Start an ECO club at your school:
- One of the first way you can get involved is by working with other students around your school on the eco-systems at your school (Are they using a recycling system? How can you make that system better?)

Join a group of other youth activists in your area
- A great way to build power and organize is connecting with people who are already doing the work. Check at your school or at local organizations if they have youth committees or programs specifically working on organizing and local and state level policy, like YEA!

Research!
- There will always be grassroot level groups and organizations doing a lot of the same actions you are wanting to do. Try and find ways to get involved like canvassing or attending meetings.

Talk to your lawmakers:
- An easy was to get involved is to find out who represents you in your district and advocating to them things happening in your community

Becoming climate activists changed both of our lives, and you can take action too! Interested in learning more about how youth-led community organizing works? Check out our YEA page!

The post How do I become a youth activist? appeared first on Climate Generation.

How do I become a youth activist?

Climate Change

Asheboro, North Carolina, Is Under Pressure to Control Discharges of a Toxic Chemical Into Drinking Water Supply

Published

8 hours ago

October 27, 2025

Alice Rush

The EPA wants the city of 28,000 to rein in an industrial solvent, 1,4-Dioxane, from its wastewater discharges. So far, Asheboro has refused.

By Lisa Sorg

ASHEBORO, N.C.—Some members of the public in attendance at the Environmental Protection Agency hearing last week called the City of Asheboro’s actions “despicable.” Others said they were “shameless.” And still another remarked that those who pollute the water—which data show Asheboro is doing—await “a special circle of hell.”

Asheboro, North Carolina, Is Under Pressure to Control Discharges of a Toxic Chemical Into Drinking Water Supply

Climate Change

Can COP30 mark a turning point for climate adaptation?

Published

16 hours ago

October 27, 2025

Alice Rush

Cristina Rumbaitis del Rio is a senior advisor on adaptation and resilience and Pan Ei Ei Phyoe is a climate adaptation and resilience consultant with the United Nations Foundation.

COP 30 compels the world to make a decision. Already 3.6 billion people are highly vulnerable to rapidly worsening climate impacts such as droughts, floods, and heat stress. Meanwhile, Glasgow-era climate finance commitments are expiring, and elements of the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) are yet to be finalized.

This November provides the opportunity to elevate the issue of adaptation and resilience – and for countries to demonstrate they grasp the urgency and are prepared to act.

Success at COP30 will hinge on how three key questions are answered:

Will countries agree on a new adaptation finance target backed with real commitments?
Will countries finalize architecture to track progress toward the Global Goal on Adaptation and implement the UAE Targets for Global Climate Resilience?
Will adaptation receive elevated political attention at COP30?

A new adaptation finance target backed with real commitments

Belém will test whether negotiators can agree on a new adaptation finance goal that is anchored in clear targets, timelines, and accountability. The Glasgow Climate Pact’s goal to double adaptation finance is set to reach its deadline at the end of this year and countries are facing the question of what, if anything, comes next.

The form of the finance goal also matters: will it be a provision-based target ensuring measurable public contributions, or a mobilization target dependent on less transparent private leverage?

After two consecutive years of falling short, all eyes will be on whether the Adaptation Fund can finally meet its mobilization target and secure a multi-year replenishment to deliver predictable support.

Multilateral development banks (MDBs) are under pressure to demonstrate how to integrate adaptation into country-platform approaches including aligning finance for accelerated country-driven action and providing fast-start financing for implementation of National Adaptation Plans. NAPs have been completed by 67 developing countries and are underway in another 77 countries.

Climate adaptation can’t be just for the rich, COP30 president says

Vulnerable countries currently need an estimated $215 billion-$387 billion annually to adapt to climate change, far exceeding available funding. And developed countries face growing expectations to renew or grow their bilateral commitments beyond Glasgow-era pledges that are expiring this year or next.

Without tangible new finance commitments, the ambition of the Global Goal on Adaptation risks remaining rhetorical.

System to track progress on the Global Goal on Adaptation

The GGA still has no mechanism to measure progress, despite being established under the Paris Agreement in 2015, shaped through multiple work programs since 2021, and further expanded by the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience of COP28 which set 11 targets and launched the UAE-Belém Work Programme.

Agreeing on a robust, streamlined indicator set that is both scientifically sound and usable by countries with differing capacities will be one of the hardest tasks at COP 30. These outcomes will be a test of whether we can move from measuring resilience to building it.

Foreign aid cuts put adaptation finance pledge at risk, NGOs warn

Negotiators must settle the inclusion of equitable means-of-implementation indicators covering finance, technology, and capacity building. Finally, they must decide what comes next under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to ensure the UAE targets are acted upon within the next two to five years.

Those targets include seven that set resilience priorities for water and sanitation, food and agriculture, health, ecosystems, infrastructure, livelihoods and cultural heritage.

Adaptation needs greater political attention at COP30

Last week, COP30 President Corrêa do Lago released the first-ever COP presidency letter focused on elevating adaptation, calling for solutions that will make Belém the “COP of adaptation implementation”. His task now is to embed that principle across every strand of COP30’s delivery architecture.

One test lies in how realistically adaptation is integrated into the Baku-to-Belém Roadmap to $1.3 trillion to be released by the presidency. The implementation of the COP 30 Action Agenda, which provides a blueprint for collective climate action and solutions, could become the bridge between political vision and practical delivery on adaptation.

Momentum builds for strong adaptation outcome at COP30

Questions remain on whether Brazil’s leadership on adaptation thus far will position adaptation as a political priority that will be reflected in leaders’ statements at the opening of COP30. The inaugural High-level Dialogue on Adaptation – hosted by the outgoing COP President Azerbaijan and Brazil – is another opportunity where countries can reaffirm and institutionalize adaptation as a permanent pillar of climate action.

In the role as the host and president of COP30, Brazil has repeatedly stressed the importance of matching adaptation with actual resources and accountability, highlighting adaptation as one of the five guiding stars of the Paris Agreement alongside mitigation, finance, technology, and capacity building.

With the right outcomes in Belém on finance targets, measurement systems, and political commitments, COP30 could be remembered as the moment adaptation financing and implementation finally matched the scale of the challenge.

The post Can COP30 mark a turning point for climate adaptation? appeared first on Climate Home News.