What happens when we trust youth to lead climate action?

Restoring coral reefs, restoring community trust

Along Pakistan’s coastline, coral reefs are disappearing, eroded by pollution, overfishing, warming waters and neglect. For many, the loss feels irreversible, but Sundus Sohail and her team are proving otherwise. Through their Reef Revival Initiative, they are using a practical, community-driven natural method that blends science, Indigenous knowledge and local stewardship to bring damaged reefs back to life.

Working with over 250 fishers, students and Indigenous communities, Sundus and her team are establishing 10 coral nurseries, housing 200 coral fragments rescued from damaged reefs.

Driving clean mobility forward

In Monrovia, traffic fumes are a daily reality. For many, getting across the city means long, expensive and unsafe commutes. But on the streets of Paynesville, a quiet revolution is gaining ground, on three wheels.

Elvis Thomas is piloting Liberia’s first fleet of electric tuk-tuks. But these are not just any tuk-tuks: they’re operated by women, powered by clean solar energy, and designed to transform both mobility and livelihoods.

Turning plastic pollution into green livelihoods

In Uganda’s capital, Kampala, plastic is everywhere. Bottles clog drainage systems. Floodwaters rise with every storm. For communities in low-income areas, the impacts are especially harsh, breeding disease, displacing families and deepening cycles of vulnerability.

Specioza Nakate has lived this reality. But she’s also chosen to change it.

Through her youth- and women-led initiative, Specioza has trained more than 200 young people, mostly women, in eco-design, digital marketing and climate leadership, equipping them with the skills to turn discarded materials into income-generating products.

Specioza’s work doesn’t end at recycling. Much of the collected plastic is sent to another Youth4Climate awardee, Sonko Jamal, whose project converts waste into clean cooking fuel, creating a chain of youth-led climate solutions that reinforce one another across the country. What started as a clean-up campaign has become a full-fledged circular economy enterprise, one that creates jobs, raises awareness and trains youth in green skills.

Powering Indigenous communities with clean energy

In the remote Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, in northern Colombia, the Arhuaco Indigenous community of Katanzama has long lived without access to reliable electricity. Schools and health outposts operated in the dark, vaccine refrigeration was unreliable, and students lacked access to digital tools.

Pablo Castellanos Ramelli, a young clean energy entrepreneur, saw this as a matter of justice rather than merely a technological issue.

Working with the community, Pablo and his team created a circular solar energy system that gives a second life to discarded EV batteries. The remanufactured batteries, paired with solar panels, now provide continuous power to lighting, digital classrooms and cold storage for life-saving vaccines, benefiting more than 150 residents, including over 100 students.

Growing the future, one smart garden at a time

In La Paz, a high-altitude city perched more than 3,500 metres above sea level, climate pressures are colliding with urban sprawl and food insecurity. As Bolivia’s third-largest city grows, fresh, affordable food is becoming harder to access.

Luis Guillermo is planting a new path forward. Through his youth-led initiative, Movimiento Propacha, he and his team are building Bolivia’s first “smart school gardens”, transforming schoolyards into learning spaces where young people grow food, learn climate resilience and reconnect with the land.

By combining hydroponics, drip irrigation and water sensors with traditional farming practices, the Movimiento Propacha is helping students understand both the science and the culture of growing food. Over 300 students from two public schools have taken part in workshops on climate-smart agriculture, nutrition and food security, learning to grow everything from lettuce to native herbs.