TakingITGlobal

Today's youth will experience climate change through a spectrum of increasingly drastic impacts to the earth system and its human societies, and they will ultimately be handed responsibility for addressing immense consequences as they enter adulthood. How today's youth come to terms with climate change, the skills they acquire to contend with such wicked problems, and the opportunities available for them to engage politically, are therefore of crucial importance. However, scholars know surprisingly little about youth perspectives on climate change, and youth are largely excluded from decision-making. This report thus explores the educational, political, and emotional dimensions of youth engagement with climate change, specifically through a project involving global youth and climate education. From January - March, 2018, ninety-nine youth, from public and private high schools in thirteen different countries, collaborated in a Cities and Climate Change project facilitated by the Centre for Global Education. Youth used online tools to exchange ideas and debate on the roles of cities, youth, and education systems in addressing climate change. Following months of online teamwork, a select group of fourteen youth, representing the majority of these schools, traveled with their teachers in March, 2018, to Edmonton, Canada, where they drew on all the work of their peers to collaboratively write a position paper, the International Youth White Paper on Climate Change: Education and Cities. The project culminated in their presentation of this paper at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Cities and Climate Change 04 | I N T R O D U C T I O N

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