Helping Underrepresented Young People to Tackle Climate Change: BELIEVE in climate action

Fostering the ability for young people to engage with and lead on climate action is central to mitigating climate change in the future. Having the space to develop new skills and connections while caring for the environment is especially important for young people from minoritized backgrounds. They bring diverse knowledge and potential, but their voices are often underrepresented in climate action and they may face significant barriers to green-sector careers. Accordingly, this project seeks to encourage and support more young people from underrepresented backgrounds to develop climate leadership skills at both the local and national level.

It will operate across much of England, engaging young people from minority (or minoritized) faiths, migrants, multilingual and ethnic minorities. Through values-led, community-driven action, it will pioneer a different approach to motivate people from faith communities to engage. This approach will seek to reframe climate action as an ever-present aspect of day to day life, as opposed to a singular objective or outcome.

Through Dr Anastasia Badder, Cambridge is contributing to these efforts with the necessary research. Dr Badder and her team will document how faith, ethical and cultural values influence youth-led climate action. Examining how dominant climate narratives reflect specific value systems, and alternative framing supports behaviour change, these insights will offer formative feedback relevant to all workstreams.