To address this challenge, Student Energy and the Climate Emergency Collaboration Group came together at COP28 to facilitate a collaborative roundtable event, uniting youth and philanthropic actors to address the challenges and opportunities inherent in engaging youth-led organizations in the energy sector. These conversations emphasized the importance of flexible, unrestricted funding to support the long-term sustainability of youth organizations while facilitating greater participation in global decision-making spaces; dismantling exclusionary barriers present within current grant-making processes; and recognizing the unique needs and challenges facing youth, prioritizing support for youth efforts across ages, geographies, and backgrounds.

As we look towards this year’s COP convenings, which will be taking place between November 11 and 22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan, we’re diving into a few key takeaways from this discussion while calling on leaders across all sectors to raise ambition around their youth engagements – a demographic that will be critical to achieving an equitable and sustainable energy future for all. We further hope these findings will catalyze broader gatherings and youth-philanthropy engagements to spur the global energy transition through innovative and impact-driven youth initiatives.

Flexible, unrestricted funding is essential. 

Many youth participants noted that they often have difficulties accessing funding through philanthropies that support multi-year projects or general organizational needs, instead relying on project-specific grants. 

Not only can flexible, unrestricted funding support the long-term sustainability of youth organizations, but a number of additional co-benefits can be realized. Sufficient funding towards organizational salaries can help to reduce burnout common across youth organizations, many of which are volunteer-based. Funding allocated toward travel can facilitate increased youth participation in critical global decision-making spaces, such as COP28, which can be vital for inspiring future work and initiatives. Unrestricted funding can also serve to support educational and people development opportunities, furthering young people’s capacity to undertake this critical work and enhancing their overall credibility as actors in the energy space.  

Philanthropy must work to dismantle barriers that are exclusionary to youth. 

Youth organizations expressed that they generally find the philanthropic space to be exclusionary, difficult to navigate, and often operating in elite circles of which they are not a part. 

Philanthropic organizations must acknowledge the current barriers that may restrict youth organizations from accessing grants. These barriers might include the use of difficult or jargon-filled language, bureaucratic and time-consuming application processes, and funding requirements that render youth-led work ineligible due to fewer years of experience and a perception that youth lack the necessary expertise to undertake such work. Young people have identified trust between youth organizations and philanthropy as a critical first step toward dismantling these barriers. 

Philanthropy must be cognizant of the unique needs and challenges facing youth. 

Youth organizations are operating across incredibly diverse geographies, undertaking initiatives that are geared toward specific contexts and needs. In some parts of the world, youth feel restricted from grants due to ongoing conflict or political polarization. 

To raise ambition around youth engagement in the energy sector, philanthropies should prioritize supporting youth efforts across ages, geographies, and backgrounds while avoiding tokenistic and superficial efforts. Increasingly important is the need to recognize the unique context surrounding Indigenous-led initiatives while encouraging funding to support the integration of Indigenous knowledge into policy and practice. 

This lack of access to philanthropic funding can inevitably restrict youth organizations’ ability to maintain and scale their operations within the energy sector. This roundtable and its findings provide evidence-backed starting points to increase awareness among climate philanthropists of the needs of young entrepreneurs in the energy sector, ultimately spurring the global energy transition through innovative and impact-driven partnerships. 

Given its strategic timing on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, New York Climate Week also offered a fantastic venue for celebrating Student Energy’s 15th anniversary, reflecting on our remarkable achievements in activating young people to accelerate the clean energy transition while at the same time looking toward our future through the release of our 2030 Vision. 

This vision centres around four key pillars we plan to prioritize over the coming years, including fostering global and local community-building through our Chapters network and bi-annual Student Energy Summit; expanding career pathways for young people in clean energy through our Career Training and Fellowship programs; providing grants to high-impact and needs-driven energy projects through our Guided Projects program; and creating new educational opportunities for youth through intergenerational collaboration and meaningful youth inclusion.

It’s these core thematic areas that guided our efforts and advocacy during New York Climate Week. In particular, Student Energy announced a new Commitment to Action as part of the Clinton Global Initiative’s (CGI) 2024 Annual Meeting, which took place in New York between September 22 and 23. This commitment, Equipping Young Leaders for Clean Energy Innovation, aims to advance youth-led clean energy deployment in the Global South, directly engaging 2,500 young people from 2025 to 2027 through job training, skill-building, and project development, with far-reaching benefits impacting thousands more in local communities. Student Energy is delighted to join organizations such as Imagine Worldwide, Ashley Lashley Foundation, and Young Activists Summit in making a Commitment to Action, and we’ll be monitoring our progress toward our goals over the coming years. 

We also had the opportunity to learn from a number of inspiring leaders and experts in the space, through events like the Global Renewables Summit, Resilience Day: Innovating and Investing for People and Planet, and EnergyNow SDG7 Action Forum, as well as those hosted by partners and organizations like Trottier Foundation, Youth Climate Justice Fund, Women Leading on Climate, Time for Better, Rockefeller Foundation, and more. 

Speaking & Moderating Engagements

Sharing Benefits of An Inclusive Renewable Energy Transition

Helen was a speaker at the Global Renewables Alliance’s roundtable discussion, Sharing Benefits of An Inclusive Renewable Energy Transition, hosted as part of the Global Renewables Summit, in which representatives from both the private sector and civil society presented case studies and best practices for accelerating the deployment of renewable energy technologies, while also exploring how to ensure the energy transition is inclusive, the importance of collaboration, and how to ensure that its benefits are distributed equitably to all. 

Flipping the Script: Mobilising the Youth Perspective on Positive Tipping Points

Helen also took part in the Global Optimism-hosted event, Flipping the Script: Mobilising the Youth Perspective on Positive Tipping Points, as moderator, diving into the importance of youth leveraging storytelling and creative communications in order to amplify messages of agency and hope that are founded in the concept of positive tipping points. 

A Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue on Climate Action: Young Practitioners and Their Role in Technology Transformation

Grace spoke at the event A Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue on Climate Action: Young Practitioners and Their Role in Technology Transformation, hosted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which explored the technological transformations that must take place in order to address pressing sustainability issues and catalyze climate action.

Mainstreaming Gender & Youth for SDG 7: Challenges & Opportunities for Young Women Entering the Workforce

Grace further moderated a session during the Energy Now SDG 7 Action Forum, Mainstreaming Gender & Youth for SDG 7: Challenges & Opportunities for Young Women Entering the Workforce, which featured dialogue on the challenges and opportunities for mainstreaming gender and youth perspectives in support of the achievement of SDG 7 – which calls for access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all – and focused on the empowerment of women within the energy transition.

Hosted Events 

Clean Energy Career Pathways for Youth in the Global South

Student Energy was thrilled to host our very own event during New York Climate Week, in partnership with New Energy Nexus and Linked In, titled Clean Energy Career Pathways for Youth in the Global South. Drawing perspectives from Andrew Chang (Chief Growth Officer, New Energy Nexus), Hamd Akmal (Student, NYU), moderator Cammie Erickson (Senior Director of Social Impact, LinkedIn), and our very own Executive Director, Helen Watts, this event offered both inspiring and critical dialogue on the importance of engaging meaningfully with young people and providing them with necessary green skills and support to drive an inclusive and equitable clean energy transition, while also acknowledging the unique ways in which youth from the Global South are positioned to foster radical change. 

We are immensely proud of the outcomes our partnerships with both of these organizations have achieved in this regard, and we look forward to many future collaborations which continue to work to enable young people as agents of change.

Intergenerational Roundtable on the Future of Climate

On Friday, we also supported an Intergenerational Roundtable on the Future of Climate, which brought together a number of young leaders and senior leaders from various sectors and organizations to foster meaningful dialogue and collaboration in order to empower youth in driving impactful climate solutions, while also amplifying youth voices and emphasizing the need to allocate resources effectively to address the climate crisis. 

This conversation developed from an understanding that youth largely remain tokenized and deprived of meaningful representation within decision-making spaces – despite the growing role they play in tackling the climate crisis and addressing the energy transition – and builds off of conversations Student Energy hosted last year in partnership with the Climate Emergency Collaboration Group, which brought together youth and philanthropy to explore existing challenges, opportunities, and collaborative strategies to spur the energy transition through impactful youth-driven projects. 

Stay tuned for a full report with findings from both of these conversations! We hope that these outcomes will catalyze broader gatherings between youth and a variety of industries and sectors and foster meaningful support for youth as drivers of a sustainable energy transition and climate change action. 

Looking Forward

New York Climate Week highlighted the role and power that partnerships play to disrupt climate narratives and to ensure that we are centring the voices of youth and underrepresented communities. By mobilizing support for young people across different platforms, we aim to mainstream youth-forward perspectives, programs, and policies that support a just transition.

With New York Climate Week now behind us, we’re looking forward to rest and rejuvenation as we prepare for the end of 2024 and are excited to carry forward our successes into another impactful year. If you’re interested in learning more about our work and engagements at events, please connect with us at michelle@studentenergy.org. 

Transcript of Helen’s address:

Helen’s Story

My name is Helen Watts, and I am the Director of Innovation and Partnerships at Student Energy. Student Energy is a global youth-led organization empowering young people to accelerate the sustainable energy transition. We work with a network of 50,000 young people from over 120 countries to build the knowledge, skills, and networks they need to take action on energy. 

I come from a background of community grassroots organizations and global migration policy, areas that for me used to feel very disconnected from the energy technology and climate science space, until I found a platform for me to bring this knowledge to energy systems-change.

I came across Student Energy as a university student, the way that students often connect to new opportunities, through my friends and networks that felt there was something about this organization I would connect with. It was a perfect example of how effective peer-to-peer engagement is to get young people engaged on climate and clean energy solutions.

I ultimately pursued a career at Student Energy because I felt passionately about the mission of the organization. Despite my limited technical knowledge, and limited work experience as a recent graduate, Student Energy trusted me in a leadership role, where I went on to work with organizations around the world, advocate for meaningful youth engagement, and design programs with our partner and youth network.

Now at 25 years old, I have had the opportunity to design the first youth sustainability advisory board for one of the world’s big Five technology companies, I have co-founded a youth social entrepreneurship incubator for young people working on green growth solutions, and started the world’s first Global Youth Energy Outlook.

My story is one that I share with many young people in our network, to encourage young people to pursue opportunities to work on clean energy innovation regardless of their background or level of experience, and to internalize the value of bringing those diverse sources of knowledge and their own lived experiences to the challenge. 

I also look at my story as an example of how critical it is to trust young people to lead on their ideas and innovations and see them as key partners in achieving the energy transition, not simply as beneficiaries.

Importance of Empowering Youth

The fact remains that on our current trajectory we simply cannot afford to leave over 2 billion young people out of our clean energy transition. Their solutions, their lived experiences and their diverse sources of knowledge are critical to bringing new, integrated approaches to the challenge. 

Young people want to be part of delivering the solutions needed — not only the needed technological solutions but new approaches to overcoming financial and adoption barriers to scale existing solutions, identifying co-benefits between energy system change and other goals like gender equality and resilient healthcare, building public advocacy for clean energy to impact consumer behaviour, and educating children so they see energy as an exciting space to learn about climate solutions.

Student Energy has been working for over eleven years to make space for young people to lead on their clean energy solutions. We work with governments, companies, and organizations like Mission Innovation to ensure that young people are included in spaces where they can add value to our shared mission. 

I am delighted to invite all of you here today to engage with us on the next phase of this work, to leverage the opportunity of youth-led innovation. 

Over the next year Student Energy will be working to develop the Global Youth Energy Outlook that will launch at COP 26 in Glasgow. This closes a critical data gap, and will be the world’s first dataset of 50,000 youth perspectives on the energy transition through 2030. Led by 12 youth regional coordinators around the world, we are gathering the priority policy actions, technological and integrated solutions, consumer behaviour changes and social co-benefits that youth want to see in the energy transition. This will define the areas that young people want to work collaboratively with governments and organizations to achieve, and will be a breakthrough moment in equipping young people with a unified and focused call-to-action. 

We will be working with our global youth network and with actors in the energy system to facilitate effective collaboration and support youth-led innovation to accelerate our sustainable energy transition, and we hope that you will join us in this aim.”

Watch the full video:
https://youtu.be/sxqQ-lDIn5o?t=5674

Apply here to be considered for ten regional coordinator positions currently open

The Global Youth Energy Outlook is currently seeking young energy leaders to collaborate on a unique research project, which will present the perspectives of 50,000 young people around the world on what urgently needs to happen in the energy transition.

Regional Coordinators will play a critical role in defining the engagement strategy and success metrics for their region’s youth perspectives. Coordinators will engage young leaders from their own networks, Student Energy’s networks (Chapters, Leaders and Alumni), and more broadly to gather their insights for the final report.

Ten Coordinators will be recruited to represent ten regions around the world, defined by their unique energy, population, and geographic contexts. Student Energy will explore opportunities to scale up and recruit additional Coordinators in key sub-regions or geographic contexts if possible. This process will be to ensure representation from Indigenous communities, young people in rural and remote settings, and Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

The role consists of working with Student Energy’s Outlook Project Manager and Student Energy’s Research Associate to co-create a strategy for engaging your region and train support teams of citizen scientists to support you in gathering statistically significant datasets.

In addition to the research component of the role, there will be a communications component. Student Energy is working to create opportunities and provide support for  Coordinators to attend key outreach points in the lead up to releasing the final report, with space to speak about your experience leading energy discussions in their region. Key outreach points may include convenings like the Sustainable Energy for All Forum (Kigali), P4G Summit (Seoul), and COP 26 (Glasgow). More details on confirmed outreach activities that Student Energy can support will be provided in April 2020.

The commitment is approximately 5 hours per week over six months from April 1st, 2020 through September 30th, 2020. Due to the more significant commitment required for this role, a paid stipend will be provided. 

Apply Here

What are the objectives of the Global Youth Energy Outlook?

Close the data gap that exists on youth engagement on energy and demonstrate how young people are thinking critically and collaboratively about pragmatic and systems-level solutions to decarbonize our energy system.

1. Increase the accountability of decision-makers to work meaningfully with young people on the energy agenda, by ensuring that the core call-to-action of the outlook is concise and gains profile, and by providing young people with a data-backed tool to hold decision-makers accountable to delivering on the youth agenda.
2. Deepen global youth engagement on energy by providing young with the tools to work with actors in their energy system and with the collective learning experience of working to gather, analyze and synthesize insights from their peers.