Wildfires destroy their homes. Floods shut down their schools. Extreme weather conditions disrupt their childhoods. Yet, when climate policies are drafted, the voices of young people – the very ones who will inherit our crisis-stricken planet – still somehow remain muted.
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By Zain Jaffer
The consequences of climate change are already reaped by millions worldwide, with young ones most susceptible to severe and long-lasting impacts. According to UNICEF, nearly one billion children are at extremely high risk due to climate change. That’s almost half the world’s child population.
It is no surprise then, that the younger generations suffer an acute emotional toll from the climate crisis. A 2021 Lancet study found that 59% of young people worldwide feel extremely worried about climate change, with 45% saying it negatively affects their functioning and daily lives.
This sense of existential dread has been coined climate anxiety, and it is rising sharply. For many, it is even compounded by climate grief, a growing psychological phenomenon of people mourning the loss of biodiversity, ecosystems, and even their envisioned futures.
Younger people could be more prone to these emotions given the new realities they are uniquely beset with. That cities and islands might disappear under rising seas before they ever get the chance to see them. That species they learned about in school may go extinct within their lifetimes. That their hometowns could become uninhabitable in just decades, or even years. These are realizations older generations likely never wrestle with.
In response to climate anxiety and grief, some retreat into pessimism, convinced that efforts to stop climate change are already too little, too late.
This growing despair is understandable, but it is also dangerous. If young people lose hope entirely, they may disengage from the very fight that still needs their voices.
For that, climate storytelling offers a powerful counterforce. By reframing the crisis through their own lenses, young people can push back against the narrative of inevitable catastrophe and instead document their resilience, their fears, and their hopes for a different future.
Picturing My Climate Future, one of the many projects our foundation supports, is empowering high school students to do just that. Participants document and visualize their climate futures by taking pictures of their locale, their outdoors, and wildlife, and captioning the photos with their sentiments and experiences of climate impacts. Through these photos and narratives, the intangible statistics and numbers that can so easily be ignored in policy-talks become heftier with real, lived implications. And in turn, participants gain an outlet for their distress over climate change.
Similar youth-driven efforts have already shown the power of youth expression in driving change. The Children’s Climate Prize, for example, spotlighted projects like Melati and Isabel Wijsen’s successful campaign to ban plastic bags in Bali.
History has shown that when young people are given a platform, they can drive real change. Perhaps the most famous example is Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future movement, which the Swedish activist launched at just 15 years old. It has mobilized millions worldwide to demand urgent action. In 2019, an estimated 7.6 million people joined climate strikes inspired by her activism, making it one of the largest environmental protests in history.
From what we have seen them already accomplish, it is time we recognized that young people should not be treated as mere observers of this crisis. They are just as capable as adults – if not more – in engineering solutions.
We have to open the floodgates for youth participation to extend beyond storytelling and activism. They need to be directly involved in shaping policies: consulted, funded, and given a seat at the decision-making table. Because without them, we risk creating incomplete and ineffective policies and solutions.
They have insights older generations might not have, experiences in overlooked issues – from the educational disruptions caused by extreme weather to the long-term mental health toll of climate anxiety – and a built-in perceptiveness from adapting to situations their older counterparts never experienced as children or teens. Their voices bring urgency to discussions that often get bogged down in political inertia and corporate interests.
To policymakers, institutions, and organizations: let’s take concrete steps to integrate youth perspectives into climate strategies.
Schools and community programs can explore new ways to encourage youth participation and expression. Consider mounting photography workshops, organizing climate exhibits, or including storytelling in environmental education. Young people need more tools, mentors, and platforms to feel more empowered.
Governments must take real action, not offer platitudes. By now, there should be more youth advisory councils with real influence in climate policymaking. Young people should not just be protesting outside government buildings. They should be inside them, participating in the decisions that impact their future.
Foundations and grantmakers have a responsibility, too. Many fund research and high-level policy work, but funding for youth-driven projects can also shift the public conversation. More grants should go to young creators, climate media projects, and grassroots initiatives. So please, for the love of philanthropy, let’s put more of our charities behind raising the volume of these young but wise voices.
The stakes are too high to still be sidelining those who will inherit the planet. If they are not given more influence on our systemic choices moving forward, the world risks making decisions that fail the very generation that will live with the consequences.
You might also like: Meet South Korea’s Young Activists Spearheading Climate Action in Asia
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About the author: Zain Jaffer is an entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist committed to supporting initiatives that spark real impact. As CEO of Zain Ventures, he invests in technology, real estate, and mission-driven projects. Through the Zain Jaffer Foundation, he champions efforts that empower underrepresented voices in global challenges, including climate action.
