🌎 Empower Tomorrow, Shape Today

🌿 Climate Action is the Right Way

🌎 Empower Tomorrow, Shape Today 🌿 Climate Action is the Right Way

NYCA PROJECT

Each year, WAT-GP selects 1–2 youth-led organizations to join the NYCAP — a transformative, year-long journey that builds their technical capacity and equips them to create, publish, and advocate for a national youth climate agenda rooted in their country’s specific climate realities.

This project offers deep, tailored support through expert training, mentorship, and funding to prepare participants to influence national and international climate policy spaces.

PROJECT GOALS

NYCA Project participants are trained in:

  • The UNFCCC process and climate negotiations

  • Strategic advocacy and lobbying techniques

  • Intersectionality, climate justice, and human rights

  • Responding to political or environmental “crises”

  • Building and maintaining diplomatic and strategic contacts

These skills allow organizations to plan and implement long-term advocacy strategies and engage meaningfully with decision-makers.

KEY OUTCOMES

  1. National Youth Dialogues
    Participants organize inclusive dialogues with youth from their country to identify policy priorities.

  2. Climate Agenda Creation
    Each organization writes, edits, and publishes a national youth climate agenda that reflects local climate realities and youth demands.

  3. Global Policy Engagement
    Participants are supported in planning and attending key summits (LCOYs, RCOYs, COPs), including a pre-COP training for strategic coordination and collective preparation.

PROJECT VISION

The NYCA Project envisions the inclusion and empowerment of youth from the Global South and vulnerable communities. Through this program, we are building a network of experienced youth-led organizations that:

  • Collaborate and coordinate advocacy efforts

  • Influence climate policy at all levels

  • Bridge the gap between youth voices and decision-makers worldwide

PROJECT HISTORY

  •  Duration: 13 months — December 2024 to December 2025

    In 2025, the NYCA Project focuses on two dynamic youth-led organizations from the Global South and East Asia. Through a combination of tailored technical support, strategic mentorship, and youth-led dialogues, these organizations are developing their first National Youth Climate Agendas, grounded in their countries’ unique climate contexts.

    Participants:

    • Green Environment Youth, South Korea

    • Clima21st, Zimbabwe

    Key Outcomes:

    • Held national youth dialogues with diverse youth actors across Korea and Zimbabwe

    • Writing, editing, and publishing a climate agenda reflecting each country’s climate reality and youth demands

    • Planning and participation in key climate summits, including LCOYs, RCOYs, and COP30

    • Pre-COP training and joint preparation sessions to refine advocacy strategies and build solidarity across regions

  • Under construction

  • Under construction

  • The Global Youth Climate Agenda (GYCA) is an independent, international, youth-led manifesto presenting a shared vision for climate justice across borders. It unites youth-led movements to address climate issues that require global action, going beyond national agendas.

    Developed with input from grassroots organizations worldwide, the GYCA outlines seven key themes at the core of the fight for climate justice:

    1. Climate Education

    2. Inclusion of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities

    3. Climate Adaptation

    4. Biodiversity Preservation

    5. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)

    6. Loss and Damage

    7. Youth Participation for Climate Justice

    The Agenda is grounded in six guiding principles: accountability, empathy and solidarity, collaboration, accessibility, transparency, and inclusion.

    Purpose

    • Unite young voices globally to push for more ambitious climate policies

    • Equip youth movements with concrete national and international advocacy tools

    • Influence decision-makers while strengthening cross-border networks

    • Present a unified call for climate justice that recognizes historical responsibility and prioritizes those most affected

    Key Elements

    • Climate Education: Recognized as a universal right, integrating formal, non-formal, and informal education; decolonizing curricula; funding educator training.

    • Inclusion of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities: Guaranteeing legal rights, eliminating participation barriers, and supporting locally led initiatives.

    • Climate Adaptation: Prioritizing locally led, nature-based solutions; increasing micro-financing and equitable technology access.

    • Biodiversity Preservation: Recognizing biodiversity loss as a crisis; ensuring strong legal protections; promoting capacity building and inclusion.

    • NDCs: Designing climate-just commitments beyond GHG reductions, with youth and vulnerable group engagement.

    • Loss and Damage: Providing finance and technology to address climate-induced harm, proportionate to historical emissions.

    • Youth Participation: Embedding youth in all decision-making processes, providing resources, and ensuring meaningful representation in delegations.

    Impact & Vision

    The GYCA is intended to strengthen and ignite global conversations between youth movements and leaders, influencing policy for a climate-just future. It demonstrates the value of youth participation in shaping future-proof policies and building an inclusive movement that spans developed, transitioning, and developing countries.

    Link to report

Press here for to see the published Agendas!

Structure of the Project

  • 1. Internal Planning

    The planning process will begin alongside the other project, in order to be able to fully map and evaluate the human, knowledge, and economic capacities of WAT-GP.

  • 2. Application Process

    WAT-GP posts the call for Network Members to apply. The WAT-GP coordinators will make decisions regarding which organisations to prioritise for that year.

  • 3. Onboarding

    The participants will be informed on all important matters of how the program will run, the calendar, the guidelines and rules, as well as what to expect from WAT-GP.

  • 4. Knowledge Sessions

    The knowledge Sessions will be lead by the T&R team. Participants will attend different sessions with experts who will share their expertise and knowledge with them.

  • 5. National Youth Dialogues

    The Participants organise their National Youth Dialogues. Reaching out to diplomatic and strategic supporters is also part of this stage.

  • 6. Agenda Writing

    With the input obtained from the National Youth Dialogues, the NYCA will be developed. This will be a crucial tool to advocate with towards national and international stakeholders.

  • 7. COP Advocacy

    Participants will start preparing their COP Strategy. When possible, the Participants will be financially supported to attend COP as observers and implement their strategies.

  • 8. Review and Reflection

    After the project, evaluations will be hold with the Participants in order to learn about the successes and challenges of the project and its implementations.