Screenshot of the Youth-led Climate Forum at the UN Climate Conference. (Texas Impact Photo)
Texas Impact | Nov. 21, 2025
The words of the prophet Joel (2:28-32) are particularly poignant as we witness the work young people are doing around the world for the sake of life and health in the face of our global climate crisis. God promises to pour out God’s Spirit on every kind of people and our sons and daughters will prophesy. Reading further in that passage, the wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below including blood, fire, and billowing smoke as the sun turns black are actualities we are living with—and dying with—in real time.
The Youth-led Climate Forum was held during COP30 over four days, ending Monday, November 18. These sessions gave voice to many youth delegates in attendance. They also gave space for questions from those present with answers from the youth-led panel and provided thoughtful engagement and discussion.
This year the Youth-led Climate Forum named Five (5) Key Priorities:
- Implement clear NDCs and full, fast, fair fossil phase-out
- Institutionalize Intergenerational Equity
- Call for peace – there is no climate justice in war
- Reform climate finance, centered on justice
- Elevate adaptation as a moral and political priority
COP30 focuses on both indigenous people and youth around the globe. Sometimes those foci merged and the mantra, “Don’t talk about us without us,” frequently recurred. Youth are at the table but their voices need to be amplified as the work is falling short and they will be the ones to bear the weight and impact of climate change in the not-so-distant future.
João Paulo Amaral with the Alana Institute reported that this has been an historic year in preparation for COP30. Mini-COPs have been held over the past 12 months in 150 schools and cities around the globe with over eight countries involved working toward the goal of broad participation of children and youth. Amaral spoke of the immediacy to end child labor, listen to children and young people, and invest in child rights. The idea of intergenerational equity was emphasized in the need to protect “care economy” especially in the wake of climate disasters. He noted that family economy shifts with every climate disaster making girls’ rights vulnerable, as girls often have their educational opportunities taken away and are forced into child marriages more frequently in the wake of catastrophe. Amaral went on to say that intergenerational equity is a common responsibility and, “If we have a better climate future for children, we have a better climate for all.”
Youth Advocate Sarah Smith is with the Centre for Global Education and emphasized that young people are not just witnessing climate change but living it as a physical and emotional reality. Sarah shared that the creation of the Global Child Climate Manifesto is the result of conversations with children from 5-18 years of age from 85 countries over six continents. The four key steps of the manifesto are (1) proper climate education, (2) mental health support, (3) resources for artistic expression that includes diverse voices, (4) funding. Summed up in four words: Education, Advocacy, Arts, Action
The themes of Water and Human Rights are woven throughout these two weeks of COP30.
Climate justice must be attained through the lens of Human Rights, and without safe, vibrant, healing water, we all perish. Let’s find strength for the journey from the words of the prophet Amos: Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Grace Pugh Hubbard is the part-time Climate Care Coordinator for the New England Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. She is a member of Essex Center United Methodist Church in Vermont, where her husband, the Rev. Dr. Joel D. Hubbard, serves as pastor. This post is republished with permission from Texas Impact's Substack coverage of COP30.