Why we need Youth Climate Ambassadors – and how to become one

Dernière modification le Jeudi, 16/01/2025

This year I was fortunate enough to be appointed as humanitarian organisation Concern Worldwide’s Youth Climate Ambassador. But what is the role of a Youth Climate Ambassador and why does it matter?

My country is an island. Ireland sits with the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Irish Sea to the east. Water surrounds us and forms an intrinsic part of our history and heritage. Ireland is also no stranger to rain. It’s one of the reasons our land is so fertile and able to support such a large farming and dairy industry. Despite how often Irish people complain about the dreary weather, we have an extremely mild climate and our experience of severe flooding is limited.

Not all nations are so fortunate and as the climate crisis intensifies, extreme weather conditions such as droughts and floods become all the more common. The bleak reality is that those least responsible for the climate crisis are suffering its most extreme consequences. According to the World Bank, 74 lowest-income countries, which are most affected by the climate crisis, produce only a tenth of global emissions. Last May saw devastating floods in Rwanda and across East Africa resulting from El Niño (a complex weather pattern which alters temperatures, and rainfall and increases the likelihood of tropical storms). Recent studies suggest that global warming is increasing the strength of El Niño events and that the frequency of such events could double over the next century.

As climate change causes the Himalayan glaciers to melt at increasing speed and rates of extreme rainfall increase, Bangladesh comes further and further at risk of going underwater. There is nothing I find more terrifying than the idea of your home, and everything you know and love, being simply washed away. I have always been passionate about tackling climate change, but it was the plight of countries like Bangladesh that prompted me to apply to become Concern Worldwide’s new Youth Climate Ambassador.

Following the coverage of the student protests that took place in Bangladesh in August, resulting in 300 deaths and the collapse of the Bangladeshi government, I stood in awe of the bravery of students willing to risk their lives in the pursuit of justice and equality as I know many students in universities across the world did. Having been meant to travel to Bangladesh to learn more about their climate adaptation and flood prevention measures, my trip was quickly cancelled. Simultaneously facing societal instability and climate disaster, my heart went out to the people of Bangladesh. Concern Worldwide has been working in Bangladesh for the past 52 years working to assist those in the world's largest refugee camp of Cox’s Bazar, running disaster risk reduction programmes and promoting Climate Smart Agriculture.

Concern Worldwide

Concern Worldwide is an international humanitarian organisation that works in areas such as livelihoods, health and nutrition, education, emergencies, gender equality as well as climate and environment in 25 of the world's poorest countries. Concern was founded in 1968 by a small group of Irish individuals who wanted to help the people of Biafra, in modern-day Nigeria who were experiencing a catastrophic famine in a war-torn environment. They ended up raising millions and ensuring the delivery of thousands of tons of food and relief supplies.

The climate crisis has become a major cause of natural disasters and a contributor to conflict as depleting resources creates and leads to economic instability which in turn increases societal tensions. The climate crisis has also resulted in unprecedented levels of migration and displacement. Concern through projects in climate-smart agriculture, disaster risk reduction resilience and nature-based solutions has committed itself to assisting those communities most impacted by the climate crisis.

Becoming their Youth Climate Ambassador was a huge moment for me and prompted me to reflect on the importance of engaging young people in humanitarian work and climate activism. Like many other climate activists when I first got involved in campaigning for climate justice, my activism took place in a very local context. I was concerned, and still am, with issues such as how my family's farm can adapt its practices to become more environmentally friendly or how we ensure the protection of marine life living in West Cork, where I’m from.

But it took a while before global issues started to make it onto my agenda. It first began when the United Nations Conference of Parties (COP-26) was held in Glasgow in 2021. I was sixteen at the time. That was when I learned what COP was. I was involved in the YMCA, a youth organisation who was sending delegates to COP. The local coordinator in my area had organised an event where we met and talked to those who were heading off to Glasgow.

COP-26

Their passion for global climate action was contagious. That was also the first time I heard the term climate justice and was introduced to the climate crisis as fundamentally an issue of injustice and inequality. Where people of different geographic locations, wealth levels, genders and races experience the climate in vastly different ways.

I was glued to the coverage of COP-26, watching Instagram reels of teenage activists on the streets, and reading the posts of youth ambassadors who were inside the negotiations. I felt represented and I felt invested. I saw young people, like me, who were there not because it was their job, not because they were getting paid for it, but because they cared about the climate.

I wanted to know if they got what they wanted and began to realise that the things they wanted, I wanted as well. There were young people standing in solidarity with small island nations like Tuvalu and Kiribati whose countries were at risk of eradication due to rising sea levels. I felt a similar sense of solidarity with the stories they were telling of farmers from Malawi. I understood that feeling of helplessness that came with your whole livelihood being entirely dependent on something as fickle as the weather. I had enough experience of my parents pacing in front of the TV waiting for the Weather Forecast to try and predict if they’d be able to cut silage the following week to know that weather matters and that for small subsistence farmers can be the difference between being able to provide for their family or not. To hear of the impact that climate change was having on their ability to simply farm the food they needed to survive was heart-wrenching.

You rarely hear these experiences shared in day-to-day news and if it wasn’t for the young activists and climate ambassadors present at COP bringing those stories home to Ireland, I may never have heard them. That is the role of a Youth Climate Ambassador to make young people feel invested like they have a stake in the game. To bring them stories and information that they may never otherwise have known. To make people want to take action.

As the world becomes more interconnected, and the climate crisis becomes more marked by inequality, it becomes more important for young people to be able to learn about how countries in the Global South are experiencing the climate crisis. During my time as Concern’s Youth Climate Ambassador, I’ll have the opportunity to travel to COP-30 in Belém, Brazil and share my experience on my return home.

How to get involved?

There are more opportunities present for young people in Europe to become active campaigners for climate justice than ever before. The European Climate Pact Ambassador program allows young people to promote climate action in their own communities, join a network of fellow youth ambassadors, receive invitations to events on EU-level climate policies, take part in the Youth Climate Pact Dialogue and have their role recognised by the European Commission.

Similarly, every two years the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) chooses a Youth Delegate to COP. This program is open to those between 18 and 30 years of age who are a national and resident of one of the member states of the European Union. The delegate will get the opportunity to participate in the EESC’s Ad hoc Group on the UNFCCC COP, be a full member of the EESC delegation at COP and participate in EESC side events.

For those who wish to support the work of Concern Worldwide, your donations can be instrumental in changing the lives of those most in need of your assistance. And for those of this readership based in Ireland, there are various ways to volunteer with Concern, even by becoming their next Youth Climate Ambassador!

Across the world, many governments and NGOs have begun establishing Youth Ambassador/Delegate roles. Establishing these roles allows organisations to make their work more accessible to young people, using their youth ambassadors to share stories and information about their organisation and to inspire action among their peers. For young people, it can be an opportunity to develop new skills and really make a difference in the world.

Ultimately, young people have the most to lose from the climate crisis. We have arguably the largest stake in the game. Youth Climate Ambassadors allow young people to have their voices amplified and to gain access to first-hand information about the decisions that are being made about their future. It’s a chance for organisations and governments to give some of their power to young people and invest in the world’s future and in its present.

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Young Journalists in Europe - Meet the author

Alannah Wrynn
My name is Alannah Wrynn and I am an Irish nineteen-year-old studying History and Politics at Trinity College Dublin. I come from a farming background in rural West Cork and have been campaigning as a climate activist since the age of sixteen when I joined the Future Generations Climate Justice Project and began campaigning for sustainable food production methods. I took part in YMCA Ireland’s Youth Journalist project combining my passion for environmental protection with a flourishing interest in journalism. Since then I have continued to use videos, interviews and photography as a way to share information and inspire action.

This article reflects the views of the authors only. The European Commission and Eurodesk cannot be held responsible for it.