Youth climate advocates have called for a shift from global climate pledges to concrete action, with greater youth participation in climate policy and innovation.
The advocates said governments, funders and institutions must provide young people with the resources and decision-making space needed to develop and implement solutions to climate challenges.
Mr Chibbeze Ezekiel, Executive Coordinator, Strategic Youth Network for Development (SYND), said the youth had been systematically sidelined from solution development despite growing climate challenges and the approach of the 32nd Conference of the Parties (COP32).
“Young people ought to be at the centre of the climate conversation; they must lead change rather than serve as audiences to decisions made by older generations,” he said.
Mr Chibbeze said while global frameworks, African regional policies and Ghana’s national youth policy emphasised youth participation in decision-making, implementation remained inconsistent.
“Governments often hold high-profile events with speeches and photo opportunities while calling it youth inclusion, but we must allow the youth to speak the language of policy makers – develop position papers, policy briefs and implementation recommendations,” he said.
The comments were made during the 2026 Local Conference of Youth (LCOY) Ghana, held online over the weekend.
Mr Makafui Awuku, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mckingtorch Africa, cited innovations by young people to build sustainable communities, including measures to address urban flooding, as evidence of the need for greater support and inclusion.
He said his organisation had produced more than 500 school desks in the past year, developed a tourism space using 1.6 million recycled plastic bags and created Africa’s first plastic waste bar shelter in Accra.
Mr Awuku said the organisation had also trained head porters (Kayayei) to transition from street vending to circular economy business models, with some subsequently gaining admission to university to deepen their knowledge of environmental innovation and support economic mobility.
“If our communities are not sustainable for everybody, then sustainability fails for everyone, and we have our youth implementing solutions to protect the environment and human livelihoods. This is where authorities must bring the youth on board,” he explained.
Mr Awuku called for locally developed solutions to Africa’s climate challenges, saying, “solutions imported from Europe, the United States, or Asia frequently fail when implemented locally without adaptation.”
Mr Ephraim Niyajumoku Danso, Grants Lead, African Sustainability Lab, identified transport as a neglected climate issue in Africa, describing the sector as “the connective tissue” linking economic and social activity.
He advocated policies that were “human-centric” rather than system-focused to ensure that youth and women had “breathing room to innovate within existing frameworks.”
Mr Danso noted that although global climate action frameworks included 17 core sustainability goals and 169 targets, policies had not sufficiently translated into action at the community level.
He encouraged young people working in climate action to continue developing pipeline initiatives capable of attracting funding, saying innovation and value addition distinguished projects worthy of investor attention.
“we must move from policy to practice,” he said.
GNA
