Vision

The Youth Climate Report (YCR) is a youth-led digital database of short documentary films made by youth aged 18 to 35 throughout the world. The Canadian-based project is a partner program of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). There are currently more than 1,000 videos in the database with more than 300 made by Canadian youth.

There are four goals for our project that the Youth Climate Report (YCR) aims to achieve each year:
1. To provide a visual data delivery system of new climate and sustainability research from around the world to the delegates and negotiators attending the United Nations annual climate summits, the COP conferences;
2. To provide a voice for youth around the world so they may be heard at the COP conferences;
3. To provide a voice to the global scientific community so their latest research will reach the environmental policymakers of the United Nations.
4. To give voice to the under-represented communities of Indigenous People and those living in remote parts of the world.

Aims & Objectives:

Film is a valuable medium for communicating data to international policymakers. Written and peer-reviewed scientific papers can sometimes be a challenge to some elected officials without a scientific background. Film provides a visual context to these papers and often presents compelling visible evidence of climate events around the world.
These films made by youth bridge the communications gap between science and policy as well as between youth and policymaker. Films made each year are presented directly to policymakers working in the Blue Zone of the COP conference through a series of press conferences and Side Events.

Action

Workshops are conducted throughout the world hosted by universities and UN agencies. Each year, YCR conducts a workshop for 8,000 delegates of the UN’s International Youth Conference. We also work with the Foundation for Environmental Education out of the University of Copenhagen through its Young Reporters for the Environment program. In Canada, we work with several university research projects such as the Ghana Youth Videography Programme (Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON) and the Planetary Health Film Lab (York University, Toronto). University project assignments also contribute youth-made films to the database. Our partnership with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is instrumental in recruiting global youth participants and in presenting their films at the annual COP conferences.

Reflection & Celebration

The Youth Climate Report has measurable impact in amplifying the voice of youth with the United Nations in global climate policy discussions. The project is directly responsible for contributions made to UN climate policy:
1. Regional Conference of Youth (North America) Global Youth Statement. New York: International Youth Conference (2023), pp. 15.
2. Global Youth Statement. Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt: YOUNGO, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP26 (November, 2022), pp. 107.
3. Global Youth Statement, Glasgow: YOUNGO, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP26 (November, 2021), pp. 81.
4. “Enhanced Action on Adaptation: Section II, Subsection 25,” Cancun Adaptation Framework. Cancun: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP16 (January, 2011), pp. 81.
In 2021, the UN honoured the Youth Climate Report with a Sustainable Development Goals Action Award.

Links