Writing Our Future: Youth and Climate Policy

By the time the breakout sessions began at the Next Gen Policy Climate Summit during LA Climate Week, the formal part of the day was over. The climate leaders and high-level policymakers who had stopped in were starting to leave, and the room changed character. Chairs scraped across the floor. People pulled into tighter circles. Notebooks opened, laptops lit up, and conversations that had been broad and aspirational turned practical very quickly: “What would this policy actually require?” “Who would have to act?” “How do you build something that lasts?” That was the moment the Next Gen Policy Climate Summit felt different from most climate events I have attended. 

Too often, youth are invited into climate spaces to speak symbolically. We are asked to share our fears, hopes, and commitment to the future. Those voices do matter, but young people are still positioned as witnesses to policy rather than participants in making it. At the Next Gen Policy Climate Summit, we were not just asked to care about climate policy. We were asked to help shape it. 

If climate policy is going to shape the world we inherit, young people should not be limited to reacting to decisions after they are already made. We should have the opportunities to help build them. That is what made the summit feel so meaningful. Youth were not treated as an audience, and we were not there to simply validate decisions already made by adults. We were being asked to think through what policies would reduce emissions, what implementation would require, and how to move from an idea to a campaign, and then, from a campaign to real change in law, funding, or behavior. In other words, we were being treated like stakeholders. 

I have seen how powerful that can be beyond a one-day event. Through Pasadena 100, I’ve experienced what happens when adults and young people work together on climate policy in a real and sustained way. In Pasadena, youth involvement isn’t just about optics or outreach. It is about helping shape conversations over what kind of city we want to build, how seriously climate commitments are taken, and whether public promises are followed by real action. 

That kind of collaboration has changed the way I think about climate work. Policy can sometimes feel distant, as though it belongs only to elected officials, technical experts, or adults with long resumes. But some of the most important climate progress happens when institutions make room for broader participation without lowering the seriousness of the work. In fact, inviting youth into these spaces can raise the level of accountability. It brings in people who are thinking not only of immediate constraints, but also about the long-term consequences of policies. 

I have seen something similar in my own work with Sortify, a platform I created to help schools start and improve waste-sorting systems. What began as a campus effort grew because students were not just told to care about waste but trusted to help design solutions. When students are given real responsibility, they bring more than just energy. They notice problems, help design solutions, and begin to feel that they have a stake in the environment around them. That matters. People are more likely to invest in a better future when they feel they have some power in shaping it. 

The same principles apply to climate policy. Young people bring urgency and a longer time horizon to the conversation. We are asking what kind of communities will exist twenty or thirty years from now, whether the policies being passed today are durable, and whether they are bold enough to meet the scale of challenges we will face. That perspective is not a replacement for experience. It is a necessary complement to it. 

That is why the summit mattered. It showed what climate engagement can look like when youth are invited as participants. We were asked to work on questions more difficult than “Do young people care about climate change?” And those harder questions are the ones that will prepare the next generation not just to inherit public systems, but to improve them. 

Of course, one summit alone will not solve the climate crisis. No single event can. The real test is what happens after the breakout sessions end and the notes are packed away. Will youth perspectives be carried forward? Are there pathways for continued engagement? Will institutions create ongoing roles for young people in policymaking, or do they return to the audience once the event is over? 

Those questions matter for Pasadena, too. If we want a more sustainable future, we need more than one-day invitations. We need civic structures that allow young people to keep showing up, contributing, and working alongside adults on policy. We need to treat youth participation as part of the process, not an afterthought. 

The Next Gen Policy Climate Summit offered a glimpse of what that can look like. It showed that when young people are trusted with real responsibility, they rise to it. Just as importantly, they begin to see themselves as stakeholders in public life, not someday, but now. 

That may be one of the most important forms of climate action there is, building a culture in which the people who will inherit the future are invited to help shape it.