Discussion | How Far Are Chinese Youth from Participating in Climate Conferences, from Check-ins to Engagement?

This year’s United Nations Climate Conference (COP29) has gained significant attention on social media platforms. A search for “COP29” yields a plethora of related posts, with some reaching millions of views. The platform features both in-depth scientific explanations of climate conference topics and a variety of engaging discussions, with lively comments on related issues.

As extreme weather events become more frequent due to climate change and the dual carbon agenda gains mainstream traction, the interest in climate conferences has visibly increased in recent years. In terms of attendance, COP29, held in Azerbaijan, is the second-largest climate conference in history. The Chinese government delegation ranks fifth in terms of official delegation size. This year, many grassroots organizations and companies from China also participated, with official data showing that 102 Chinese institutions registered as observer organizations. In a WeChat group for Chinese participants in COP29, the number of group members once reached 500.

The number of participants in the United Nations Climate Conference is rapidly increasing. This year, I also attended COP29 as an observer. However, during my observations at the venue, I found that despite China’s increasingly prominent role in international climate negotiations, the presence of Chinese youth participating in the international climate agenda remains relatively limited.

**The Current Situation of Domestic Youth Participation in COP**

Chang Chu (a pseudonym), a senior student at Dalian University of Technology from Guangxi, learned about COP for the first time when she saw someone from her community attending COP28. She then actively searched for related information and discovered the profound impact of climate change on vulnerable groups and rural areas she was familiar with. Over the next year, she deeply engaged in various local research and educational projects on climate change from multiple community perspectives. Although these rich experiences provided her with an opportunity to attend COP29 through a domestic social organization, she ultimately declined due to the high costs exceeding ten thousand yuan and language barriers.

In China, most youth participate in COP through self-funded channels via social organizations. The public welfare organization CYCAN, which has supported domestic youth participation since 2009, sent five representatives this year, mostly undergraduate and graduate students from domestic universities. Additionally, some kindergarteners, elementary school students, and middle school students appeared at COP with the guidance of social organizations. Generally, such opportunities require registration through organizations with “observer” qualifications that possess “entry tickets” to the United Nations Climate Conference, with participants bearing their own travel costs (registration does not require a fee). Most participants have some connection to public welfare organizations; for instance, CYCAN chose to recruit youth partners who had previously participated in their projects rather than open recruitment this year, while the Energy and Environment Research Institute allowed volunteers to exchange labor for entry tickets.

Besides these channels, some study abroad institutions focusing on climate change have turned participation into an opportunity for students to broaden their horizons and enhance their resumes, allowing them to participate in United Nations conferences and engage in activities such as lunch with industry experts for a fee. The founders of these institutions may have previously worked in the climate field, thus having access to numerous industry resources, making it easier for them to obtain United Nations entry tickets.

In fact, peeling back the mysterious veil of the “United Nations Conference,” such events are not as unattainable as they seem. COP conferences encourage multi-stakeholder participation, and it is estimated that over 10,000 members from social organizations worldwide participated as “observers” this year. Once an organization passes the observer qualification review, it can send different representatives to subsequent conferences. However, whether domestic youth can successfully attend and navigate the process depends directly on qualifications, language, and financial resources.

How do youth from other countries participate? Abdulhamid, a young observer from Nigeria, leads an international youth volunteer environmental organization. He stated that as long as they apply, most of their volunteers can obtain entry tickets to COP without needing to perform additional work in return. This generosity is possible because, although the United Nations allocates a limited number of entry tickets to each observer organization, it allows the same ticket to register different individuals on different conference dates. If utilized to the fullest, one ticket can register 14 people over two weeks, with each person attending the venue for one day. Many youth organizations employ this strategy to maximize youth participation. Others borrow excess tickets from other organizations, as many do not attend every year.

However, he lamented that while many young people from Europe, Latin America, and Africa were present at the venue, the representation of young people from East Asia was notably sparse.

Universities can also apply to become observer organizations, and many youth from other countries participate in COP through their universities. At the venue, I encountered several Chinese students from Australia and the United States who participated in COP through open recruitment and interviews at their schools, which provided accommodation and transportation costs.

In addition to negotiations, the venue also hosts side events and informal networking activities.

According to the UNFCCC’s public list, a total of 278 universities worldwide registered as COP29 observer organizations this year, with American universities leading at 77, followed by 53 from the UK. The combined number of universities from Europe and North America accounts for over 70% of the global total. Only nine Chinese universities registered, three of which are from Hong Kong. Among the top ten universities in the 2024 ShanghaiRanking, only Tsinghua University sent student representatives to COP.

**What Does Youth Participation in COP Mean?**

Elite youth can leverage the opportunity to speak at the United Nations to develop their skills, broaden their perspectives, and connect with resources, paving the way for a better future and becoming more responsible climate leaders. But is that all?

Shan Wa (a pseudonym), who has interned with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), believes that COP is not only a venue for showcasing national climate policies and actions but also a space for learning how to voice concerns and communicate with decision-makers.

At the climate conference, “equity” is an unavoidable stance. The Paris Agreement established at the 2015 Paris Climate Conference recognized the “common but differentiated responsibilities” of developed and developing countries in addressing climate change. Additionally, the rights of vulnerable groups such as women, indigenous peoples, and youth can be formally mentioned and advocated here.

At COP15 in Copenhagen, youth handed out shirts printed with “How old will you be in 2050?” to politicians and decision-makers on stage, highlighting the issue of intergenerational justice in climate change: current decision-makers will not bear the climate impacts of 30 or 50 years from now; instead, it is the young people, who are most innocent in terms of climate responsibility, who will bear the consequences.

In the same year, the official youth organization of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, YOUNGO, was established, and UNICEF has continuously empowered youth to participate in COP worldwide. This year, UNICEF’s office in China, in collaboration with several local and official organizations, launched a campaign to collect “Chinese Youth Actions on Climate Change,” with projects from students at Yangzhou High School in Jiangsu Province, Beijing Normal University Affiliated Experimental School, Tongji University Affiliated New Jiangwan City Experimental School, Beijing Jiaotong University Affiliated High School, and Shanghai American School qualifying for presentation at COP.

However, youth cannot be uniformly defined. Mark Ortiz, an assistant professor at Penn State University, argues that at COP, some children and young people are elevated to the status of cultural icons, while others are marginalized in terms of opportunities to be represented and heard.

“Aside from students from Tsinghua University and a few international or experimental schools, the vast majority of Chinese youth have not been represented,” a young observer told me during a break at the conference.

This phenomenon is global. Many are attempting to address this issue, with financial support aimed at enabling more youth to participate in climate conferences being one such effort. Organizations like the International Organization for Migration, Youth Opportunity & Transformation in Africa, and Life of Pachamam have all sought to promote the participation of youth from underdeveloped regions, immigrant youth, and indigenous youth in COP this year. At the venue, these young people appeared in numerous discussions and exhibitions on related topics, sharing their unique climate challenges and offering locally rooted efforts and solutions that diverge from mainstream topics like “energy transition” and “climate finance,” providing new insights and reflections.

**Perhaps the Ticket Is Not What Matters Most**

Shan Wa has never attended COP in person, but she feels that she is not far from the climate conference. With a background in international environmental governance, she can analyze the negotiation progress and the conflicting positions of different stakeholders through real-time news and reports from media reporters and observers on-site, leading to her own understanding of the current situation.

However, professionals like her remain in the minority. In the English-speaking world, there are many podcasts and social media interpretations that provide more concrete and grounded analyses of professional climate negotiations to support a broader audience in understanding relevant content and lowering the barriers to engaging with COP. For example, the youth organization CLIMATALK created a quick understanding checklist of this year’s key negotiation topics, outlining the negotiation processes to assist many “onlookers” in grasping the issues.

In the Chinese information landscape, such content focusing on the technical details of negotiations remains relatively scarce.

Nonetheless, in a recent informal survey I conducted (which included nearly 60 environmentally conscious youth from 28 universities), many young environmental activists expressed that, compared to “wanting to better understand the negotiation process,” a deeper question is: in the context of escalating climate crises, significant de-globalization trends, and increasing individual survival pressures, what is the true connection between COP and their environmental practices? Beyond radical protests, can COP provide actionable inspiration and solutions in the face of climate change?

Gaga (a pseudonym), a graduate student in rural development at China Agricultural University, believes that for those who lack the resources to take the international stage and do not wish to influence international policy but want to engage in practical, grassroots efforts, participating in COP holds little significance.

Sui Mi (a pseudonym), a student