Side Event

Youth-led Urban Futures: Co-Creating Change Across Generations

BELÉM, BRAZIL: This event at the COP30 SDG Pavilion will discuss how youth are driving transformative action for sustainability and co-design tools that strengthen meaningful youth engagement.

Time
- America/Belem
Address
SDG Pavillion (D-138 Blue Zone), Parque da Cidade, Belém, Brazil

This event at the SDG Pavilion of the 2025 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP30) will explore how youth initiatives can drive sustainability transformation and how they can be supported with practical tools. It will address the obstacles that hinder meaningful youth engagement across different scales: from local community projects to international negotiations.

An interactive session will share best practices and lessons learned from a Community Climate Action Planning Toolkit developed in partnership with Indian youth and grassroots communities; a youth-led empowerment programme to address urban flooding in Southeast Asia; and community action towards ethical consumption and education. Participants will take part in a time-travel visioning exercise to experience what climate-resilient and inclusive cities could feel like. As part of a tool prototyping lab, participants will return to the present to identify the tools needed to make that imagined future possible. Guided by youth facilitators, an intergenerational dialogue will focus on the policies, resource flows, partnerships and mental models required to sustain meaningful youth engagement. 

Participation

This event is open to attendees of COP30. 

Please note that participants in UNU events may appear in photography, screen captures, videos and/or audio. For further information please refer to Events.

Programme

Programme details will be added to this page as they become available. 

Language

This event will be held in English. 

Organizers

The session will be co-organized by UNU-IAS, UNU-EHS and Youth Unite for Voluntary Action (YUVA) India. 

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