UK Youth Climate Coalition

Formation

In June 2008, the United Kingdom ambassadors to the World Wide Fund for Nature's Voyage for the Future programme, Emma Biermann and Casper ter Kuile, returned from the Arctic to found the UK Youth Climate Coalition (UKYCC) after being inspired by young people undertaking similar projects across the world, such as the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and the Energy Action Coalition in the United States.

By bringing together a number of youth organisations and a coalition of non-governmental organisations, the co-founders intended to unite the work of their partners. Following on from this, the co-founders formed a coordinating team who worked on a number of projects, campaigns and events over the duration of the next year.

Aims and objectives

The mission of the organisation is to inspire, empower and mobilise young people to take positive action on climate change. To achieve their aims and objectives, the organisation provides training to young people on public narrative, using the techniques developed by Marshall Ganz who was part of the U.S. President Barack Obama's election campaign, whilst coordinating a series of projects and events each year, including sending a youth delegations to the United Nations Climate Negotiations.

The UKYCC places strong emphasis on the need for its messaging to be positive and relevant, reflected through projects such as the "How old will you be in 2050?" awareness campaign launched by the International Youth Movement in 2009 and the "Get Gordon Some Vision" fundraising campaign which ran in early 2009. Ben West, former Communications Coordinator for the organisation, called for environmental groups to communicate their aims more effectively and become more innovative in their approach.

Similarly, the organisation aims to bring together a number of diverse youth organisations, both national, regional and local, to work alongside youth led organisations and other coalition partners to fulfil their goals.

Governance

The UK Youth Climate Coalition (UKYCC) is run by a team of young volunteers under the ages of 25. The organisation itself is a registered private company limited by guarantee, with no share capital, which means it is run for non-profit purposes. The daily activities are managed by two co-directors, who supported by eight coordinators who are in turn supported by a team of appointed volunteers. The volunteers are supported by an Advisory Board, who advise on issues relating to finance, legal issues and communications.

The UKYCC is supported by a coalition of non-governmental organisations. As of 2011, the coalition includes ActionAid, Amnesty International, British Youth Council, Diana Awards, Envision, Friends of the Earth, Liberal Youth, LJY Netzer, Made in Europe, Medsin, National Union of Students, Otesha Project, Oxfam, People & Planet, RSPB, Scottish Youth Parliament, Stop Climate Chaos, Unicef, The Woodcraft Folk and Young Scot.

Alongside the coalition partners, the UKYCC boasts a membership of over 2,250 young people. The organisation is open to any young person to join, in addition to their coalition which is open to any organisation.

Internationally, the coalition affiliates to the Youth Climate Movement, with sister organisations in America, Australia, Canada, China and India. The UKYCC has also formed a partnership with the African Youth Initiative on Climate Change - Kenyan Chapter, with whom they share resources, experience and training. In 2009, the UKYCC committed to raising over £11,000 for their partner organisation.

Funding

The UKYCC advertises that its core funding comes mainly by donations from its supporters. Projects undertaken by the volunteers have previously been funded by foundation grant applications, such as the Youth Funding Network, and in-kind support. For example, Seventeen Events provided pro-bono support to the volunteers to ensure their Powershift event was sustainable.

2008

In 2008, the UK Youth Climate Coalition undertook a number of activities. Some of their projects included:

2009

The UKYCC worked with the International Youth Movement, in particular the European Youth Climate Movement to contribute to the "How old will you be in 2050?" campaign, launched at the United Nations Climate negotiations taking place in Bonn, Germany. The slogan has been used by an array of organisations since then and was also the focus for the International Youth "Young and Future Generations Day" in December 2009. The campaign seeks to emphasise the need to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 on 1990 levels, as young people will be the ones to inherit this world and decisions made today will have a direct impact on their lives in 40 years time.

From 9–12 October 2009, the organisation organised an event called Power Shift, which was held at the Institute of Education in London. Modelled on a similar event to one organised by the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and carrying the same name as the Energy Action Coalition event in the USA, the event was designed to provide training to young people on how to take action on climate change and also provide them with support to undertake their own initiatives within their local communities The training was based on the techniques developed by Marshall Ganz, a civil rights activist who is credited with devising the grassroots organising model and public narrative training for the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign.

Three days before the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, Kirsty Schneeberger, one of the 2009 Coordinators for the UKYCC, chaired a question and answer debate between a panel of government ministers and 80 young people. The panel included former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Former Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Miliband and Former Minister of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office Baroness Glenys Kinnock.

A day later, members of the UK Youth Climate Coalition participated in the Wave, organised by coalition partner Stop Climate Chaos. It is estimated that between 40,000-50,000 individuals attended the march in London, in addition to over 7,000 participants in Glasgow.

Similarly to previous years, the organisation sent a second youth delegation to the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference. In preparation for the talks in Copenhagen, the Youth Delegation met negotiators from the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Darran Martin, one of the youth delegates, was reported to have cycled from the United Kingdom to Copenhagen, Denmark. Prior to and whilst in Copenhagen, the youth delegation recorded a series of documentaries, with the goal of providing inspiring stories directly to young people within the UK.

Midway through the Climate negotiations in December, the UKYCC also organised a Day of Action as the UK Delivery partner for the Global Campaign for Climate Action, also recognised as "TckTckTck". Alongside 1,600 actions taking place around the world, the UKYCC organised a flash dance outside the Houses of Parliament and projected an image onto the House of Commons, with the slogan, "the World wants a real deal". The day of action was designed to call on world leaders to create and agree on a fair, ambitious and legally binding deal as the outcome of the Climate negotiations that month.

2010

On 12 January 2010, over 150 young people came together to explore ways in which young people can join the fight against climate change, in an event organised by the UK Youth Parliament. The event was supported by the UK Youth Climate Coalition and coalition partners Oxfam, Plan UK and UNICEF.

A month later, the Department for Energy and Climate Change launched a Youth Advisory Panel, including representatives from the UKYCC. It is reported that this followed a proposal suggested by the UK Youth Climate Coalition and their coalition partners People & Planet and Plan UK.

In April, the UKYCC launched a viral video campaign called "Shake your money maker" to raise awareness of ethical banking amongst their supporters. The campaign ran with the slogan, "It might not come with a free popcorn machine, but an ethical bank account will sow the seeds for a cleaner, brighter future." The organisation estimated that if each of their 2,000 supporters had £500 in their account and they were all to switch to an ethical bank, this would total £1 million.

Prior to the May General Elections, the UKYCC supported the British Youth Council Manifesto and the Vote Global campaign which intended to raise awareness of key issues during the election campaign.

Following the general election and to coincide with the formal opening of Parliament and the Queen's Speech on Tuesday 25 May, the UKYCC also launched a project called "Adopt an MP". The scheme intended to see 650 Members of Parliament in the UK "adopted" by a young person in their constituency, who would communicate the activities of their MP back to their communities.

2011

At the start of 2011, the UK Youth Climate Coalition began providing training and resources to young people across Europe to enable them to organise Power Shift conferences. Alongside this event, the organisation co-ordinated a campaign, called "Push Europe" to encourage the European Union to commit to higher emission reduction targets.

A delegation of 13 young people also attended the climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa.

Reception

In 2009, following the UK Youth Climate Coalition's Powershift conference and activities on 350.org's International Day of Action, Casper ter Kuile, co-founder of the organisation, was awarded Climate Community Citizen of the Week Award by the Climate Community.

In 2010, Kirsty Schneeberger, former Coordinator with the UK Youth Climate Coalition, was awarded an MBE for her work with the organisation. In the same year, 6 volunteers with the organisation were featured in The Guardian's list of youth climate leaders.

In 2011, Ellie Hopkins, former Co-Director of the UK Youth Climate Coalition, received the 'Most Inspirational Young Person' award from Climate Week.

Although the UKYCC has not formally won any awards, the organisation was recognised by Seventeen Events, one of the judges of the MediaGuardian Innovation Awards, for their ability to use the internet to communicate, network and organise.