We asked Daniela Kunkel-Linares, our former Senior Youth Coordinator and Libby, our former Youth Environmental Activists! (YEA!) member and Youth Team Intern to reflect on their time in the program and their relationship as they move on to new adventures. They took the opportunity to write letters to each other. The following reflects the power of co-mentorship models in youth work.
I really cannot believe it has been three years since I first logged onto my first YEA meeting. Three years that can be measured in hours on zoom meetings and in the sunny room, or in Alma receipts, or in big giggles and big cries. Three years that have been filled with Youth Climate Justice Summits, wins and disappointments with the Climate Justice Education Bill, a trip to New Orleans, and a lot of learning. So many things come to mind when I think about YEA and what it has meant to me, but I think the thing that has stood out the most to me has been the relationships I have built.
When I started at Climate Generation, Jason and Sarah (former youth staff and mentors/friends to me) introduced me to the idea of co-mentorship. I had never heard about it before but the more I learned, the more I realized it was a model of youth work that I had been practicing.
It is a youth work model that believes that youth and adults can practice relationships of mutuality and reciprocity that counters the dominant narrative that adults have things to teach children and children have things to learn from adults. It allows us to lean into the belief that we all have something to learn from each other, no matter our age.
Co-mentorship and all relationship work is some of the most transformative parts of movement work. White supremacy culture demands shallow and transactive relationships. Mentorship and deep relationships are the antidote to white supremacy and is essential to successful movement work.
As Aurora Levins Morales writes in her GOATED essay The Politic of Childhood, “the oppression of children is the wheel that keeps all other oppressions turning. Without it, misery would have to be imposed afresh on each new generation instead of being passed down like a hereditary illness.”
To combat white supremacy culture we MUST treat our young people differently. We have to encourage, model, and embody relationships that are trusting, mutual, reciprocal, loving, understanding, and filled with gratitude.
Practicing co-mentorship has created some of the most meaningful relationships I have with young people. My relationship with Libby being one of them. Libby and I have gotten to know each other over the last three years. Libby was a youth participant in the YEA program and has been interning with CG this past year. As we both transition to new opportunities we took some time to reflect on what this experience together has meant to us.
Libby’s Letter
Dearest daniela,
Where even to begin! I can’t even picture what my life would be like if I didn’t meet you. The serendipity of our lives intersecting when they did leaves me in awe. Being able to grow alongside you for the past three years has been a great joy in my life that will be forever a part of how I interact with the world every day. When I first met you I was a junior in high school without any idea of what my life would be, just starting to learn what a community could be through YEA! You had just graduated from college and moved out of Redmond. Now I am going to be a sophomore in college moving into Redmond with a lot more of a grasp on who I am but also the endless journey that it is to figure that out; while you are also moving on to the next step in your life, as we both step away from a place that has been so important to us both. There will never be a day that I see Alma, or Redmond, or a yellow bike, or Nolte, or the writing center, or a garden without thinking of you. I have learned so much about how to live a meaningful and rich life just by existing alongside you. You inspire me so much with your care and ability to connect.
I remember when I was first talking in front of the legislature at the capital. I was so scared. I knew that I could look over and see your kind face smiling back at me, and that gave me the courage to do something so scary. You also were the first person to walk me through campus when I was deciding I would be going to the University of Minnesota. I had never imagined that would be the school I was going to but walking around with you and hearing you talk fondly of your time made me feel okay about it. Without your support I would never have been able to accept that part of college with such open arms.
Also, it is truly amazing how we have been able to be at such different places and yet find so much common ground and be there for each other. Everything feels so full circle and so meant to be. Every Wednesday when I saw you sitting in one of the booths it felt like a weight was lifted. Needless to say I looked forward to it every week. I felt so honored to be able to have that time with you. I truly believe that this past year taught me so much about connection and how important it is to me. It was all the little moments that show how insightful you are and of how you helped me grow as a person. Together we were able to truly reflect and grow and work on becoming better organizers and more forgiving people. The vulnerability we shared while interrogating whiteness, taught me that tough conversations can be the most important ones, and people are imperfect, and it is okay to be imperfect. I deeply connected with doing the next best thing and learned to allow perfectionism to fall at the wayside and to lean into what is truly important to me.
I think it is most telling that all the people in my life know about daniela. My gratitude goes beyond anything that I could write down in a letter. You truly have been the older sister I never had, and I will always hold that love with me. I am wishing you all the best in your next adventure. I am so proud of you and so excited for you! And I will miss you endlessly.
All my love,
Libby
Daniela’s Letter
Libby!
Can you believe that it’s been three years! I can’t! Time has moved both so fast and so slow over these years. So much has changed and also stayed the same. It’s funny to think about how things in life feel cyclical. When we met I was just finishing up at the U, living on University ave, and obsessed with Alma. And now, here you are! About to start year two at the U, living on University ave, and obsessed with Alma. I am so proud of you and all the ways I have watched you move into deeper alignment with yourself, your values, and your community over the last three years.
I so vividly remember meeting you IRL for the first time at the youth strike. It was pouring rain, I was nervous to meet you all, and the staff at the capital were giving us such a hard time about the sound. The day was hectic and exciting and I remember you being so immediately open to trusting me to support you. I feel so grateful for that moment because it helped me lean into my new role.
I also remember the conflict that happened that day with another organizer. I remember there were a couple YEA meetings you missed and wondering if everything was okay. When we connected about that experience, I was so honored to have gotten to hear your insightful reflection. You talked so much about ego in a way that reminded me of the deeply personal work that being in community asks of us. It was so clear to me that you were wanting to do that work, and that is something so incredible about you. You know so intuitively what it takes to be in community and you are so open, so adaptive to feedback, and so caring to yourself in how you do that work.
I am so grateful for all the things that we have gotten to do together! Several Youth Climate Justice Summits, a lot of time on Zoom and in the sunny room, going to New Orleans, and of course so much Alma time! I am so grateful that my time at YEA has been consistently filled with time and experiences, and learnings with you. We have both grown so much, it’s been so meaningful to reflect together on that. I think it is so incredible how much we have been able to connect with each other.
We have explored co-mentorship through our time as a youth participant and a youth mentor, and as co-workers, and now as we transition to a non-work friendship! We have found ourselves, at each iteration, grounded in a relationship of reciprocity, gratitude, and mutuality. The transition from you being in the program to being alumni was definitely one that I was unsure about. I was unsure how we would shift to different boundaries, different needs, and different experiences.
And it has been so incredible. This year, being able to talk so vulnerably about whiteness, organizing, and solidarity together. I know we were only able to talk about those things so openly because of the scaffolding we had built over the previous two years. I learned so much from you about meeting people we love in our lives with curiosity and encouragement. I am constantly reminded by you that it is okay to wear my heart on my sleeve. I have learned so much from you about building real trust with each other. There were so many moments of honesty and care that were such reminders to me that trust is built over time. It is made of many moments of showing up consistently, sharing joy, and learning about each other’s lives. I am so grateful to you for that reminder.
Libby, I am so excited for us both as we move to new things, and I can’t believe it’s the end of both of our times in YEA. I will miss you and YEA so much. I knew going into youth work that the thing that was most meaningful to me was the relationships I would get to build with young people. I am so grateful for this friendship. I can’t wait for the next time we find ourselves at Alma again! Thank you for everything!
<3 daniela
The post Letters to my co-mentor: reflections on building meaningful relationships in a scary world appeared first on Climate Generation.
Letters to my co-mentor: reflections on building meaningful relationships in a scary world
Discussing climate change can make a difference. Focusing on the impacts in everyday life is a good place to start, experts say.
When Bad Bunny climbed onto broken power lines during his Super Bowl halftime show, millions of viewers saw a spectacle. Climate communicators saw a lesson in how to talk about climate change.
Wondering How to Talk About Climate Change? Take a Lesson from Bad Bunny
Sydney, Thursday 19 March 2026 — In response to escalating attacks on gas fields in the Middle East, including Israeli strikes on Iran’s giant South Pars gas field and Iranian retaliations on gas fields in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the following lines can be attributed to Solaye Snider, Campaigner at Greenpeace Australia Pacific:
“The targeting of gas fields across the Middle East is a perilous escalation that reinforces just how vulnerable our fossil-fuelled world really is.
“Oil and gas have long been used as tools of power and coercion by authoritarian regimes. They cause climate chaos and environmental pollution and they drive conflict and war. The energy security of every nation still hooked on gas, including Australia, is under direct threat.
“For countries that are reliant on gas imports, like Sri Lanka, Pakistan and South Korea, this crisis is just getting started. It can take months to restart a gas export facility once it is shut down, meaning the shockwaves of these strikes will be felt for a long time to come.
“It is a gross and tragic injustice that while civilians are killed and lose their homes to this escalating violence, and families struggle with a tightening cost-of-living, gas giants like Woodside and Santos have seen their share prices surge on the prospect of windfall war profits.
“We must break this cycle. Transitioning to local renewable energy is the way to protect Australian households from the inherent volatility of fossil fuels like gas.”
-ENDS-
Images available for download via the Greenpeace Media Library
Media contact: Lucy Keller on 0491 135 308 or lkeller@greenpeace.org
Greenpeace response to escalating attacks on gas fields in Middle East
Climate Change
DeBriefed 20 March 2026: Energy crisis deepens | Brazil’s new climate plan | New Zealand climate case
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.
This week
Iran war fallout continues
WORK FROM HOME: The International Energy Agency has advised its member countries to take 10 steps in response to the ongoing energy crisis fuelled by the Iran war, including reducing highway speeds and encouraging people to work from home, said the Guardian. It came after retaliatory attacks between Israel and Iran continued to destroy energy infrastructure in the Middle East, causing energy prices to soar further, said Reuters.
SUPPLY DISRUPTED: The IEA also said it is prepared to make more of its member nations’ 1.4bn-barrel oil reserves available to help ease the impacts of what it called the “biggest supply disruption in the history of the oil market”, reported Bloomberg. The outlet noted that Asian countries have been hit hardest by the shortages, caused by a “near-halt” of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
EU SUMMIT: The energy crisis dominated talks at an EU leaders summit on Thursday, said Politico. Arriving at the summit, Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez attacked other European leaders for using the energy crisis as an excuse to “gut climate policies”, according to the EU Observer. The Financial Times said that some European leaders have asked the European Commission to overhaul its flagship emissions trading system (ETS) by summer in response to the energy crisis.
COAL BOOST: In response to the conflict, utility companies in Asia are “boosting coal-fired power generation to cut costs and safeguard energy supply”, said Reuters. UN climate change executive secretary Simon Stiell told Reuters: “If there was ever a moment to accelerate that energy transition, breaking dependencies which have shackled economies, this is the time.”
Around the world
- WINDFARM WINDFALL: The Trump administration in the US is considering a nearly $1bn settlement with TotalEnergies to cancel the French energy company’s two planned windfarms off the US east coast and have it instead invest in fossil-gas infrastructure in Texas, according to documents seen by the New York Times.
- BUSINESS CLASH: Following “clashes” with the agribusiness sector, Brazil launched its new climate plan, which calls for a 49-58% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 2022 levels by 2025 and includes “specific guidelines for different sectors”, reported Folha de Sao Paolo.
- SALES SLUMP: Sales of liquified petroleum gas from India’s state-run oil companies have fallen by 17% this month due to cuts in deliveries to commercial and industrial consumers “amid the widespread logistical bottlenecks triggered by the Iran war”, said the Economic Times.
- CUBAN ENERGY CRISIS: The US imposed an “effective oil blockade” on Cuba, leaving the country facing its “worst energy crisis in decades”, reported the Washington Post. Meanwhile, Chinese exports of solar panels to the island have “skyrocketed” since 2023, it added.
- RECORD HIGHS: An “unprecedented” heatwave in the western and south-western US is “shattering dozens of temperature records” and could lead to drought in California in the coming months, reported the Los Angeles Times.
- VULNERABILITY CONCERNS: Landslides that killed more than 100 people in southern Ethiopia have “renewed concerns about Ethiopia’s vulnerability to climate-related disasters”, said the Addis Standard.
1%
The percentage of England’s land surface that could be devoted to renewables by 2050, according to the long-awaited “land-use framework” released by the UK government this week and covered by Carbon Brief.
Latest climate research
- Approaching international climate action by shifting the burden of mitigation onto higher-income countries could avoid 13.5 million premature deaths from air pollution in middle- and lower-income countries by 2050 | The Lancet Global Health
- Beavers can turn the ecosystems surrounding streams into “persistent” sinks of carbon that can sequester an order of magnitude more than non-beaver-modified ecosystems can store | Communications Earth & Environment
- Mobile-phone data from seven diverse countries during the summer heatwaves of 2022-23 showed a “widespread tendency to withdraw into homes” and an increase in out-of-home activities that can offer cooling, such as indoor retail | Environmental Research: Climate
(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)
Captured
Carbon Brief this week published a significant update to its map of how climate change is affecting extreme weather events around the world. The map now includes 232 new extreme weather events from studies published in 2024 and 2025. Of these events, 196 were made more severe or more likely to occur by human-driven climate change, 12 were made less severe or less likely to occur and 10 had no discernible human influence. (The remaining 14 studies were inconclusive.)
Spotlight
New Zealand breaks new ground on climate litigation
This week, Carbon Brief speaks to experts about a first-of-its-kind climate lawsuit in New Zealand.
Earlier this week, representatives from two environmentally focused legal advocacy groups challenged the New Zealand government’s climate-action plan in court.
The plaintiffs argued that the measures laid out in the plan are insufficient to achieve the country’s legal obligation to hold global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures.
The case could be “influential” in shaping lawsuits and rulings around the world, one legal expert not involved in the case told Carbon Brief.
Reductions vs removals
The new case contends that there are several issues regarding the New Zealand government’s response to climate change.
One of the key arguments the plaintiffs make is that New Zealand’s second emissions reduction plan, which covers the period from 2026-30, is overreliant on the use of tree-planting to achieve its targets.
When the plan was released in December 2024, it was “immediately clear that it was a pretty lacklustre plan”, Eliza Prestidge Oldfield, senior legal researcher at the Environmental Law Initiative, one of the groups behind the legal case, told Carbon Brief.
The plan called for large-scale planting of pine tree plantations, which are not native to New Zealand and have a high risk of burning. Because of this, there are concerns about how permanent any carbon removal provided by these plantations actually can be, experts told Carbon Brief.
Catherine Higham, senior policy fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment who was not involved in the case, said:
“The lawyers are arguing that there are real challenges with equating the emissions that you may be able to remove from the atmosphere through afforestation with actual emissions reductions, which are much more certain.”
‘Global dialogue’
While other climate lawsuits elsewhere in the world have also focused on the inadequacy of a government’s plan to meet its stated emissions-reduction targets, this is the first such case that addresses the role of removals head-on.
Lucy Maxwell, co-director of the Climate Litigation Network, told Carbon Brief that the lawsuit “builds on a decade of climate litigation” in national, regional and international courts.
Maxwell, who was not involved in the New Zealand case, added that there is a “real global dialogue” between, not just plaintiffs, but national courts as well. She said:
“[National courts] look to common issues that have been decided in other countries. They’re not binding on that court if it’s at the national level, but they are influential.”
Given that many other countries have legal frameworks requiring their governments to create plans outlining the pathway to their long-term climate targets, Prestidge Oldfield told Carbon Brief that other jurisdictions “should be interested in these questions around the level of certainty”.
Higham noted that, even if the case is successful, addressing the plan’s shortfalls will face its own set of challenges. She told Carbon Brief:
“A lot of these decisions are political and they can be politically contentious…Those [measures] have to be put into action through legislation and that is then subject to the usual political process. So that’s where the challenge comes in.”
While she could not speculate on the outcome of the case, Prestidge Oldfield said it was “very heartening” to see that both the judge and the opposing counsel “appreciated how much of a concern climate change is globally”.
She added:
“It’s not a given that the judge would even be interested in climate change.”
Watch, read, listen
COMMON APPROACH: The Heated podcast analysed fossil-fuel advertisements and highlighted the most common deception tactics they employed.
THREAT ASSESSMENT: Mongabay mapped the potential threat that oil extraction poses to Venezuela’s ecosystems, including the Amazon rainforest and its coral reefs.
SALT LAKES? GREAT!: High Country News interviewed journalist Dr Caroline Tracey about her new book on saline lakes – such as Utah’s Great Salt Lake – the threats that face them and what they can teach us.
Coming up
- 23 March-2 April: Third meeting of the preparatory commission for the High Seas Treaty, New York
- 24-27 March: 64th session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Bangkok
- 26-29 March: 14th ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization, Yaoundé, Cameroon
Pick of the jobs
- International Centre of Research for the Environment and Development (CIRAD), IPCC chapter scientist | Salary: €3,200-3,750 per month. Location: Nogent-sur-Marne, France
- Avaaz, chief of staff | Salary: Dependent on location. Location: Remote, with preferred time zones
- Green Party, social media officer | Salary: £31,592-£32,192. Location: Remote or Westminster, UK
DeBriefed is edited by Daisy Dunne. Please send any tips or feedback to debriefed@carbonbrief.org.
This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s weekly DeBriefed email newsletter. Subscribe for free here.
The post DeBriefed 20 March 2026: Energy crisis deepens | Brazil’s new climate plan | New Zealand climate case appeared first on Carbon Brief.
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