The Youth Climate Program

The Wild Center’s Youth Climate Program on the World Stage

Director of Programs, Jen Kretser, along with Youth Climate Advisory Board members Silas Swanson and Gina Fiorile recently attended the Global Climate Action Summit in California. This summit, convened by Gov. Jerry Brown, brought together world leaders, companies, investors and civil society to work towards the collective goal of keeping global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius – in line with the Paris Agreement. The Wild Center team had the opportunity to highlight our Youth Climate Summit program as a global initiative to engage, empower and inspire young people to act on climate change, work towards solutions, and build more resilient communities.

At the heart of the Paris Climate Change Agreement is the commitment by national governments to review their progress and rachet up the ambition of national climate action plans, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The Global Climate Action Summit, happening midway between Paris 2015 and 2020, was timed to provide the confidence to governments to ‘step up’ and trigger this next level of ambition sooner rather than later. The momentum generated must lead to bending the curve of emissions down by 2020—science advises us that this gives the world the best opportunity to prevent the worst effects of climate change. 2018 therefore must be the beginning of a new phase of action and ambition on climate change. The Summit will underscored the urgency of the threat of climate change by mobilizing the voices and experience of real people, in real communities already facing real and stark threats. At the Summit, international and local leaders from states, regions, cities, businesses, investors and civil society—known as “non-party stakeholders/non-state actors”—were joined by national government leaders, scientists, students, nonprofits and others in a new wave of mobilization. They shared what they have achieved to date and committing to doing more to usher in the era of decarbonization, greater levels of sustainability and prosperity for the many rather than the few. A wide range of new climate commitments were launched under five key areas: Healthy Energy Systems, Inclusive Economic Growth, Sustainable Communities, Land and Ocean Stewardship and Transformative Climate Investments. The confidence, enthusiasm and support generated by this wave of action now and through 2019, will embolden national governments leaders to trigger the necessary domestic processes ahead of 2020 while also triggering more states and regions, cities, businesses and investors to ‘step up’ further action themselves. (https://www.globalclimateactionsummit.org/about-the-summit/)

At the end of the Global Climate Action Summit, world leaders issues this call to action “We, the people gathered at the Global Climate Action Summit, and communities around the world calling for climate action, commit to a climate-safe future for all. Now is the time for all leaders to step up and take bold action. Climate change is a threat to all humanity, and it can only be solved by a global cooperative effort. Only together will we transform our communities and energy systems, create employment opportunities and economic prosperity, protect our oceans and natural environment, and complete the transition to a zero-carbon world.”