Activism by young people is polarized and yields very minimal impact on climate policy because of structural inequalities – such as lack of capacity, technical and funding for mobilization. Often, only city-based youth organizations and individuals get the chance to contribute to national policies. However, the experiences of individual activists, rural and locally-led organizations, hard-to-reach youth groups are equally important. Every youth activist, group and youth- led organization deserves a voice in climate policy. However, government institutions can’t engage with every single one of them. The current gap between youth climate voices and the corresponding governmental structures at the national, regional and local levels requires working responsively to maximize the opportunity for both parties. This has been the background to which the Youth Climate Council was developed. 

The Global Alliance brings together existing youth climate councils to facilitate learning, solidarity, and joint actions to catalyze the national impacts of each council to drive impact at the international level. Through our experiences, we work with youth and governments to provide bespoke frameworks to support the establishment of new youth climate councils and similar structures focused on movement building of youth climate communities in countries where youth voices are needed the most to raise ambition on climate.