Youth climate movements only get 0.76% of global climate philanthropic funding
Students and young people worldwide are leading responses to the climate and ecological crisis, and their ambition and energy has pushed forward the political agenda and resulted in wins for the climate movement at local, national and international levels. Words such as, ‘dynamic’, ‘innovative’, ‘passionate’, ‘influential’ are used to describe youth climate advocates, and the campaigns and projects led by them, as they push the boundaries that others are not bold enough or optimistic enough too. Yet, youth climate movements only get 0.76% of global climate philanthropic funding from the largest climate foundations.
For meaningful youth leadership, youth climate movements need funding. They need to be able to develop local projects, create opportunities for youth engagement, be present in global decision-making spaces, and to participate in, and shape climate agendas at all levels. On top of struggling to receive funding for the delivery of campaigns and projects, young people and students are rarely offered financial support for their time, travel, and sharing of knowledge, insights, emotions and experiences.
We need to see more donors, particularly from the largest climate foundations, putting their trust in young people and funding the amazing work they lead. Leadership on this, at this level, will also encourage organisations to pay and provide expenses for young people for their work, and significantly increase participation at events.
Meaningful volunteer roles for young people are incredibly valuable in supporting personal and professional development in a range of ways. At SOS-UK, our student staff roles can involve greater responsibility than may be expected of a volunteering opportunity or the roles may require a specific skillset and expertise, and we recognise this by paying all student staff on our campaigns at the UK Real Living Wage. Student staff have shared how this has enabled them to further their formal education whilst campaigning and payment for their work “really shows that the organization values the individual and engages more [of] the team (it creates a sense of responsibility).”
Thank you to our funders who have contributed to our programmes and campaigns, enabling young people to learn, act and lead for sustainability. Below are some of the outcomes of Teach the Future and Mock COP over the last year which this funding has enabled to happen:
Teach the Future
- 10 student paid roles supported by SOS-UK core staff
- Been key in driving The Department for Education’s launch of their sustainability and climate change strategy
- Engage with politicians and key leaders in education across the UK
- Getting out Climate Education Bill back into Parliament for its Second Reading in the House of Commons, and is the first bill written by children to make it to this stage
- Launch our ‘Curriculum for a Changing Climate: Tracked changes review of the national curriculum’.
- Attendance to, and running an event at Labour and Conservative Autumn Party conferences
- Develop the campaign presence (‘highly commended’ in the ‘Digital Campaigner of the Year Category.’, our UK Parliament Awards).
- Grow volunteer engagement
- Run a climate education ‘Teach-In’ in London
Mock COP
- 10 student paid roles supported by SOS-UK core staff
- Develop the campaign presence (inc. Website, blogs and social media) and grow volunteer engagement
- 6 youth attending, participating in, and running events at COP27, and their expenses covered for this
- Engage with politicians and key leaders online and in-person to progress climate related policy
- Coordinate and deliver the Teach The Teacher and Teach The Parent projects, and support young people to take part in them