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
When oil and gas shipments stopped flowing through the Strait of Hormuz at the start of the Iran war, Southeast Asian nations were left reeling as the supply crunch laid bare their acute reliance on fossil fuel imports.
As prices soared, governments in the region scrambled to introduce emergency energy-saving measures – from a four-day working week to curbs on air conditioning. Thailand revived decommissioned coal plants while the Philippines, which imports nearly all of its oil, declared a “national energy emergency”.
But the crisis has also prompted renewed resolve to find a long-term solution to their vulnerability at a time when electricity demand is booming to power the region’s growing industry, cooling needs and the mushrooming of energy-hungry data centres.
At the heart of Southeast Asian nations’ response is a longstanding infrastructure project to connect the region’s power grids by 2045 and enable cross-border trading of clean electricity through a network of underground and subsea interconnectors.
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Southeast Asia’s fragile grids threaten billions in clean energy investment
Renewables developers need reliable electricity infrastructure and stable policies to help the region meet climate goals and surging demand for power -
UN backs push to upgrade grids slowing clean power uptake in Africa and SE Asia
The Global Grids Accelerator will help turn national and regional plans to expand electricity infrastructure into viable projects on the ground -
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Chinese capital and technology turned Indonesia into the world’s top nickel supplier, but its dependence on China and the rise of nickel-free batteries could upset its battery ecosystem plans
The plans will allow nations with high renewable energy generation potential to trade surplus power to their neighbours and major demand centres like Singapore, helping to integrate more renewables into the power mix and reduce reliance on fossil fuel imports.
“[It] will give us more energy security,” the Philippines’ energy secretary, Sharon Garin, told a press conference after a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) energy ministers last week, when they discussed accelerating the delivery of the regional grid as part of measures to respond to the energy crisis.
“The Philippines is rich in solar power, Malaysia is rich in hydropower and Indonesia has geothermal: different countries have different resources. [The ASEAN Power Grid] will optimise the utilisation of renewables to the benefits of each member state,” said Garin.
But turning this decade-old political vision into a reality has been slow, held up by painstaking work to harmonise a patchwork of regulatory and legal frameworks and mobilise the private capital needed to build cross-border infrastructure.
More than $300 billion is needed to expand and modernise the region’s fragile grids to support the projected energy demand increase by 2050. This includes $27 billion required to deliver the cross-border interconnections by 2040, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Every year of delay could cost the region billions of dollars in additional fuel costs and lock in new gas infrastructure for decades to come, according to analysis by global energy think-tank Ember.
The building block for energy security
With electrification high on the agenda of the COP31 climate talks in Türkiye next month, there is growing attention on the need to modernise and expand grid infrastructure to cope with growing electricity use and more renewables in the power mix.
Clean electrification and energy efficiency could deliver about a third of cumulative carbon emission reductions between 2026 and 2050, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook. But delivering that would require doubling annual global grid investment to $1 trillion between now and 2035.
Last month, the UN launched an initiative to accelerate investment into expanding and modernising grids in Southeast Asia and Africa.
First conceptualised in 1997, the ASEAN Power Grid has gained fresh impetus in recent years as countries turn to renewables to cut their emissions and move away from volatile fossil fuel markets.
Energy supply disruption caused by wars in Ukraine and the Middle East has strengthened the case for regional grid connections. Before this year’s conflict began, the Middle East accounted for 60% of Southeast Asia’s crude oil imports. Competition for fewer, more expensive oil and gas shipments has left Southeast Asia facing a $160 billion energy import bill this year. Based on current policies, this could rise to $400 billion by mid-century.
In the Philippines last week, energy ministers agreed on an enhanced planning framework to deliver the ASEAN Power Grid and made progress on regulatory guidelines.
Garin said ministers were considering accelerating the project’s delivery. “The first study was to connect [by] 2045 – that’s too far,” she said.
A strong business case
The economic benefits of the plan have “captured the political imagination” of leaders in the region, Robert Cooke, grids advocacy lead at the Global Renewables Alliance, told Climate Home News. “The business case is stronger than ever,” he said.
“If countries were to go about building their own separate grids, of course that would be an expensive endeavour. But the discussion around the ASEAN Power Grid includes what costs could we share in building out this grid,” added Tiza Mafira, director of the Indonesia office for the Climate Policy Initiative.
Stronger grids would help the region meet collective targets to increase the share of renewable energy in total primary energy supply from 14% to 30% and in installed power capacity from 34% to 45% by 2030.
Connecting and pooling dispersed renewable resources would also help smooth local power shortages caused by daily and seasonal variations, reducing the need for backup gas plants and battery storage.
The IEA found the ASEAN Power Grid could help unlock some of the 20 terawatts of untapped solar and wind potential across Southeast Asia – an amount around 55 times the region’s current total power capacity.
From lines on a map to shovels in the ground
Rather than building a single unified network, the ASEAN Power Grid is developing cross-border links between neighbouring countries and smaller groups of nations.
As of 2025, nine of 18 priority interconnection projects are operational – accounting for around 10 GW of capacity with an additional 13.7 GW planned by 2040.
Source: Ember
A power line channelling up to 200 MW of clean electricity generated from hydropower in Laos to Singapore via Thailand and Malaysia has emerged as a key building block for grid-to-grid trading.
Progress on technical discussions will also help provide the clarity the private sector needs to invest in bankable projects, said Cooke.
In 2025, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank announced a dedicated funding initiative to support the project.
“The enabling pieces are emerging,” said Monalisa Dimalanta, former chair of the Philippine Energy Regulatory Commission and the National Renewable Energy Board. “But the timelines remain unclear and a 2045 vision cannot answer today’s emergency,” she said.
“A power grid… that exists only on paper will not keep the lights on.”
Singapore: the delivery test
The implications of failing to deliver the ASEAN Power Grid are most acute in Singapore.
Constrained by space, with few renewable energy resources and dependent on gas for more than 90% of its electricity mix, Singapore has emerged as a leading proponent of a regional power grid as it seeks to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
To meet its power needs, the city-state aims to import 6 GW of low-carbon electricity by 2035, around one-third of its energy demand – a target which it is set to miss, however.
The plans heavily rely on building interconnectors to import solar power from Indonesia across the South China Sea. Around 40% of the ASEAN Power Grid’s planned interconnections are directed towards Singapore.
Ember’s analysis found that delivering the planned interconnectors by 2035 could enable renewables to meet nearly half of Singapore’s electricity demand. Delays could drop this to only a fraction of the country’s needs, and risk locking in new gas capacity until the 2050s. Without the ASEAN Power Grid, Singapore would need to install an additional 300 MW of gas-fired power capacity to bridge the gap by 2035.
Already home to the largest data centre capacity in Southeast Asia, Singapore’s electricity demand keeps rising, driven by the boom in AI infrastructure. “At one point, [it] either has to build a new gas plant, or it has to get the interconnection to supply that demand,” Lam Pham, an Ember energy analyst and the report’s author, told Climate Home News.
A region at a crossroads
With capital increasingly available, political will is now the biggest risk standing in the way of timely execution, said Pham.
But there are other challenges too, including the lack of frameworks on transmission tariffs and how to share the benefits of clean power trading. “It’s really hard to justify projects without that,” he said.
In addition, climate-fuelled weather events, including extreme heat and tropical storms, pose major threats to the region’s grid infrastructure. Experts say stronger grid interconnection can isolate damage and build the system’s resilience.
Efforts to deliver on the ASEAN Power Grid also come as ministers stressed the “continued importance of oil and gas” for economic development and seek to secure fossil fuel supplies and stockpile oil to prepare for the next crisis.
Despite an acceleration of renewable deployment, particularly solar, coal still generates nearly half the electricity supply in ASEAN member states and dominates the power mix in Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, while Singapore and Thailand rely on gas.
While these measures might help the region with the immediate crisis, “the long-term answer is more domestic renewable energy, electrification, storage, efficiency and regional power trade”, Dimalanta said.
Main image: An aerial view of the MTerra solar project in the Philippines, set to become one of the world’s largest solar-and-battery developments (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)
The post SE Asia speeds up plan for connected clean power grid after oil shock appeared first on Climate Home News.
SE Asia speeds up plan for connected clean power grid after oil shock
Climate Change
“Sink or swim”: WA Gov hugely underestimating decline in regional gas demand while sleeping on green exports, new report finds
PERTH, Tuesday 13 October 2026 — A new report from Greenpeace Australia Pacific and Springmount Advisory reveals green commodity exports are an untapped economic opportunity for Western Australia in a declining Asian gas market, while offering a genuine solution for decarbonising Asia.
From Gas to Green: Building Western Australia’s Future State is a comprehensive analysis of the declining gas market in Asia, and the untapped economic opportunity for WA to become a global leader in green commodity exports while driving the regional shift away from fossil fuels.
The report offers key recommendations for the WA Government to support regional decarbonisation through an orderly phase out of gas exports in favour of green iron and other green exports. It comes as global climate leaders from across business, politics and advocacy prepare to meet for the Global Citizen Now: Perth event focused on decarbonising WA.
Key findings:
- Gas demand is falling across WA’s core markets in Asia: Gas demand fell in 2025 and is projected to continue to decline, driven by a combination of global geopolitical factors and domestic concerns.
- Policy shifts in key markets since the war on Iran now prioritise renewables and nuclear over gas: Japan, South Korea and China have legislated energy plans that prioritise renewables and nuclear over gas.
- New WA gas would arrive in a saturated, uncertain Asian market filled with cheaper gas: The US is now the world’s largest liquefied gas producer and plans to double its capacity as it also targets Asian markets.
- Green commodities offer a real solution to sustain WA’s economy: WA can lead Australia’s green commodity exports, which by 2060 could be worth almost a trillion dollars.
- Exporting more WA gas is likely to delay or impede Asia decarbonisation: Despite claims by the gas industry, there is no evidence that WA gas is displacing coal in Asia, and in fact diverts resources from genuine decarbonisation options.
Geoff Bice, WA Campaign Lead at Greenpeace Australia Pacific said: “As our export partners in Asia shift away from expensive and polluting gas, the WA Government has a golden opportunity to pivot our economy to green exports, like green iron, which is the most effective way to help our region to decarbonise.
“The writing is on the wall: gas is in decline, renewables are our future. In this context, it makes zero sense for the government to encourage high risk projects like Woodside’s reckless Browse gas proposal at Scott Reef.
“This report clearly shows that the WA Government faces a choice: sink or swim. They can either allow the gas industry to keep ripping off West Australians and continue propping up its decline, or choose the path that will deliver enormous benefits to the state and the world by becoming a leader in the rapidly expanding green economy.”
Tom Quinn, Managing Director of Springmount Advisory: “Western Australia prospers when it looks to the future and builds for future demand. Twenty years from now, what the world needs is green commodities made using WAs abundant renewable resources. Just like it did with iron ore in the 1950s and gas in the 1970s, WA should look to the future and build what the world will need, not sunsetting industries like gas that are already past their peak.”
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Media contact
Kate O’Callaghan on 0406 231 892 or kate.ocallaghan@greenpeace.org
Lucy Keller on 0491 135 308 or lucy.keller@greenpeace.org