Climate change emphasizing living injustice

Around the world, young people are not only inheriting the consequences of the climate crisis, they are also contending with its deep entanglement with structural injustices. Indeed, for today’s youth, as we have discovered throughout this project, climate change is rarely perceived as a “standalone” issue. It intersects with economic inequality, gender, race, education, political instability, and community health. Youth’s visions for climate action are therefore inseparable from demands for dignity, equity, and social justice.

→ In the Tension Climate change as the central theme / as one theme among others, we identified the projects reflecting on the climate issue in relation to other concerns and compared them to those putting climate at the center of their work.

Across all the projects we examined, young participants repeatedly emphasized that climate change amplifies existing inequalities rather than standing apart from them. As the Youth Talks global survey puts it, “Concerns about wars and conflicts, alongside economic inequalities and depletion of resources, reveal the paradox between aspirations of peace and social justice and the realities of a world troubled by tensions and disparities.” 

These tensions are particularly sharp in the Global South, where climate change is not a future threat but a lived experience. In many African regions, climate events are intensifying and are either the cause or the result, alongside political unrest and poverty. In such contexts, climate justice is not just a theoretical ideal but a condition for survival and resilience.

“It is well known that countries that have contributed the least to climate change are the hardest hit, and are often unprepared to address its negative implications. The climate crisis also exposes vulnerable and marginalized groups – including children – to further risks.” 
Climate Futures in Mali

Yet despite these challenges, some examples demonstrate that youths are imagining and enacting futures grounded in care and solidarity. In Puerto Rico 2054, students worked through the trauma of the aftermath of hurricane Maria by “designing for disaster”, exploring what future climate relief might look like – if it could have existed at that time. As one participant noted, “Amid the chaos, the class became about designing climate futures, thinking about what climate relief might look like in 2054, and imagining that a better future was still possible.” These visions reflect how young people can transform adversity into imagination, and imagination into hope.

Climate action and social justice are inseparable

Youth initiatives across the WTFutures projects consistently treat climate action and social justice as inseparable. 

Some projects specifically center on social justice through creative or educational means. In Voices of Tomorrow, recurring themes included “personal opportunities through education and work, particularly for girls”, connecting climate futures to gender equity and social mobility. The project’s report states that young people consistently call for “community-based projects and finance, empowering local communities and grassroots organizations”. Projects like Crafting Change through Natural Dye-making, offer a relational, ethics-based approach. Grounded in feminist care ethics and Indigenous knowledge, the need for agency here reframes activism as a form of caregiving, “validating emotional labor, land-based practices, and community care as essential forms of youth-led climate justice and resistance.” Urbanités Numériques en jeu gives marginalized youths in urban areas the tools to shape their cities through digital co-design, promoting “equity, sustainability, and civic empowerment”.

Imagining justice

Some projects try to imagine social justice reforms linked with climate change at an international level. In Le Théâtre des Négociations, initiated by Frédérique Aït-Touati and Bruno Latour, students simulated climate diplomacy and proposed “the creation of a legal status for climate refugees and a working group under UNHCR guidance, embodying youth-driven legal innovation and solidarity with displaced populations.”

In institutional and policy spaces, young activists continue to push for inclusive change in the present, which when taken into account, helps shape the future. UNICEF Innocenti’s Our Future Pledge highlighted how, in one of their futures, “exponential growth in inclusivity of women, marginalized communities, special needs, and refugees rights has unlocked better futures for all”. 

This is also exemplified at the municipal level. Projects like Aubervilliers 2124 remind us that climate adaptation strategies need to be put in place and to prioritize the most vulnerable: “These transformations need to be implemented with social justice in mind… directed primarily towards vulnerable populations and collective catering (schools, offices, hospitals, the local prison…).”

Youths compelled by climate issues are aware of how the climate crisis affects the most vulnerable populations, even if in some countries they are not living the consequences on the front line. In Canada, youths emphasize the need for a “preventive” approach, wanting to mitigate rather than recover from disaster. As Net Zero and You(th) puts it: “We’ve grown up in the climate crisis. It shapes our education, our jobs, our futures. We can’t afford to be passive, we have to make space to act, even if it’s messy.”

Ultimately, what emerges across these diverse initiatives is that young people are not only asking how to stop climate change, but are reflecting on the complexity of action: what is just for themselves and for other youths. The unbalance of the world is very real to their eyes and finding ways to experiment with climate action that are just and respectful seems like a priority for those who care about the planet. Young people may be laying the foundations for a world in which climate action is inseparable from justice, and justice is inseparable from hope.