YOUTH LEADERS TRACK

Lead climate action in your community

You don't need to be an expert to make a difference.
Start where you are – in your neighborhood, your school, your city.
Across the Mediterranean, young people are already acting on climate challenges in their communities.

With the right tools and support, you can too.

Learn The Basics Start Taking Action
Lead climate action in your community

UNDERSTAND

Understand climate change – and what it means for your daily life

Climate change is already affecting life across the Mediterranean – from water and food, and how we live every day.
Understanding these changes is the first step to taking meaningful action

Meaningful Climate Action: Young People as Changemakers in the MENA Region 

Publishing Organization: Save the Children

Brief Overview: Save the Children collaborated with children and youth across the MENA region to produce this participatory research study, aiming to map child and youth inclusion in the climate policy landscape in the region, and to identify concrete entry points to make young people’s participation in climate action more meaningful. The research methodology aimed to educate, engage and put forward the power of young people both in contribution to climate education in the MENA region and to drive the conversation about the entry points to meaningful participation in climate action.

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Climate Youth Negotiators Programme

Publishing Organization: UN CC:Learn

Brief Overview: A free online course equipping young people with the skills and knowledge to participate meaningfully in international climate negotiations — covering multilateral climate processes, UNFCCC structure, and negotiation skills — ideal for youth leaders wanting to go beyond local action.

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The Paris Agreement for Young People

Publishing Organization: UNICEF

Brief Overview: "This document includes essential information about the Paris Agreement, its importance, and all its articles in youth-friendly language. The Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015 in Paris, France, changed the course of global climate action. It united nations behind the common cause: undertaking ambitious actions to tackle climate change, adapt to its various effects and ensure adequate support for developing countries. In this document you can learn about its articles and importance."

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Becoming a Climate Champion

Publishing Organization: UN CC:Learn

Brief Overview: The “Becoming a Climate Champion” e-course strives to empower you to put in place or ramp up your climate initiatives by enhancing your skills in five key areas: leadership, project management, resource mobilization, leave no one behind and communications.

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Climate Science Basics

Publishing Organization: Planet Nutshell

Brief Overview: This series by Planet Nutshell provides short, 2-to-3-minute animated videos that break down the carbon cycle and global warming into bite-sized pieces.

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A young person’s booklet to Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)

Publishing Organization: UNICEF

Brief Overview: This booklet was created to equip young people and young climate advocates with essential tools and knowledge to engage effectively in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) processes. It provides guidance on advocating for child-sensitive climate policies, ensuring that young people’s voices are heard in shaping and strengthening national climate agendas. This booklet also includes examples of countries that are engaging young people in their NDC process. To get inspired and learn, it also includes examples of young people who have participated in NDC process.

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TAKE ACTION

Start where you are –in your village, your city, or your school

You don’t need funding, a big team, or prior experience.
Start small, involve others, and grow your impact step by step.

We’ll show you how.

Featured Toolkit

Toolkit on Pro-Environmental Youth Engagement

Publishing Organization: UNEP Africa Office

Brief Overview: The Toolkit on Pro-Environmental Youth Engagement was created by youth for youth living in Africa providing hands-on guidance on how to take sustainable action and engage in eco-friendly behavior on four different levels: individual, local & national, international and (social media) communication levels.

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Toolkit on Pro-Environmental Youth Engagement

More Resources to help you Take Action:

Standards for Youth Initiatives: A Guidance Note 

Publishing Organization: UNDP, UNICEF

Brief Overview: This guidance note developed by UNDP and UNICEF highlights the four standards for youth initiatives implementation. The mentioned elements serve as a checklist for both youth networks engaged in partner initiatives and public and private partners responsible for (or interested in) designing or implementing youth initiatives. The Guidance Note concludes with recommended actions for the various actors engaged in youth initiatives.

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Y-Adapt Facilitator Gudie: Faciliate Climate Session

Publishing Organization: Red Cross Red Crescent

Brief Overview: Y-Adapt is a curriculum for young people consisting of games and playful activities. It helps them to both understand climate change and to take practical action to adapt to the changing climate in their community. These actions are local interventions that reduce the impacts of extreme-weather events. These can be rapid-onset events such as heavy rain leading to flooding, or slow-onset events such as extreme heat and drought.

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Having Climate Change Conversations: A handout to more effectively talk about climate change 

Publishing Organization: 350.org

Brief Overview: "A classic problem when talking about climate change? People too often talk about far-away concepts, like polar bears, carbon budget, or images people don’t interact with daily. It doesn’t speak to people’s experiences. This handout gives you one technique we find helpful in grounding our conversations in how the climate crisis is impacting what’s around us. "

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Action Steps for a Sustainable Lifestyle – Conscious Consumerism

Publishing Organization: Arab Youth Council For Climate Change (AYCCC)

Brief Overview: This toolkit aims to guide youth towards a more sustainable lifestyle by developing their habits and behaviors and urging them to set an example for others to follow. The guide provides holistic suggestions that seek to benefit the community as a whole including community members, leaders, and activists in this field who can work on implementing and developing their own micro campaigns and initiatives in the Arab world. The guide focuses on six different and interrelated categories: water consumption, food consumption, shopping, housing, travel, and waste management, which will support consumers in improving their consumption habits in their daily lives.

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A Toolkit for Climate Storytelling

Publishing Organization: This Is Planet Ed

Brief Overview: Whether you want to develop a whole show, a story line, or embed climate solutions in your character's world, this climate storytelling by This Is Planet Ed offers ideas, strategies, and tips to help.

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Developing, Integrating, and Implementing a Youth Climate Change Agenda

Publishing Organization: Arab Youth Council For Climate Change (AYCCC)

Brief Overview: This toolkit equips public officials and youth advocates with practical guidance to strengthen youth participation in climate action across the Arab region. It highlights the urgency of youth involvement, the unique vulnerabilities of the region to climate change, and offers policy recommendations, project ideas, and communication strategies. The toolkit provides real-world case studies, templates, and tools for youth councils, community initiatives, and public sector collaboration—making it a resource to transform climate ambition into action through meaningful youth engagement.

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START HERE, START NOW

Not sure where to begin?

Check these three resources – one to understand, one to take action, and one to get inspired.

Understand

The Young Climate Activists Toolkit in the MENA region 

Publishing Organization: UNICEF, UNDP

The Young Climate Activists Toolkit aims to equip young people with the knowledge, tools, and resources that enables their participation in regional and global youth climate action, and advocate for change. The toolkit was developed in consultation with young climate activists from around the MENA region to ensure an inclusive and a well-informed framework.

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Take Action

Prepare to Act Toolkit! 

Publishing Organization: UNICEF

Practical tips for adolescents and young people to help you prepare for climate advocacy and action. In this booklet you will find a series of tips from youth to youth who want to advocate and act for the climate.

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Be Inspired

Young People at the Heart of Climate Action

Publishing Organization: UNICEF

A powerful short feature highlighting young climate leaders from Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon taking action in their communities through environmental projects and local initiatives.

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YOUTH RESOURCES LIBRARY: More tools for your climate journey

Climate action doesn't stop here.

Explore more tools, guides, and resources to keep building your impact – step by step

  • Climate Counts

    A campaign by UNDP explaining climate change through numbers. Featuring 30 facts, the campaign aims to strengthen climate literacy and mobilize communities.

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  • The Climate Dictionary

    The Climate Dictionary is an initiative designed to make climate change concepts accessible to the general public, bridging the gap between complex scientific jargon and diverse audiences.

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  • Climate Change: Challenges and Responses

    This publication is designed for public and journalists to facilitate a better understanding of climate change topics. It includes the climate change facts and figures, policies and strategies, documents and useful links to credible sources of climate change information.

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  • Meaningful Climate Action: Young People as Changemakers in the MENA Region 

    Save the Children collaborated with children and youth across the MENA region to produce this participatory research study, aiming to map child and youth inclusion in the climate policy landscape in the region, and to identify concrete entry points to make young people’s participation in climate action more meaningful. The research methodology aimed to educate, engage and put forward the power of young people both in contribution to climate education in the MENA region and to drive the conversation about the entry points to meaningful participation in climate action.

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  • The Paris Agreement for Young People

    "This document includes essential information about the Paris Agreement, its importance, and all its articles in youth-friendly language. The Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015 in Paris, France, changed the course of global climate action. It united nations behind the common cause: undertaking ambitious actions to tackle climate change, adapt to its various effects and ensure adequate support for developing countries. In this document you can learn about its articles and importance."

    EN flagFR flagInfo Document

  • Climate Science Basics

    This series by Planet Nutshell provides short, 2-to-3-minute animated videos that break down the carbon cycle and global warming into bite-sized pieces.

    EN flagVideo

  • Toolkit on Pro-Environmental Youth Engagement

    The Toolkit on Pro-Environmental Youth Engagement was created by youth for youth living in Africa providing hands-on guidance on how to take sustainable action and engage in eco-friendly behavior on four different levels: individual, local & national, international and (social media) communication levels.

    EN flagToolkit / Guidance note

  • Creating Youth Climate Councils: A step-by-step guide for young people 

    A 12-step guide helping young people establish a youth climate council in their city or community, with guidance on working with city representatives, building coalitions, and ensuring meaningful participation in local climate decisions.

    EN flagFR flagToolkit / Guidance note

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