Youth Climate Report

The Youth Climate Report is a multilinear, interactive, database documentary film project. Simply put, it’s a digital map containing videos of climate research produced by the global community of youth from 2008 to the present. It is presented on a platform of a Geographic Information System map of the world. The Youth Climate Report was recognized with an Honorable Mention at the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals Action Awards in 2021.

Conceived in 2011 as a feature-length documentary film project showcasing approximate five video reports made by youth for presentation at the United Nations’ 17th Conference of Parties (COP 17), it has evolved into an interactive format to better engage and inform the delegates, negotiators, and policymakers of youth climate action. In 2016, it was designated as a partner program of the United Nations Climate Change secretariat and today serves as a resource for those attending the climate conferences. The project is supported by the UNFCCC as well as by UNESCO and the Foundation for Environmental Education.

Many of the videos are curated through a contest administered by the UN called the Global Youth Video Competition. Each year the participants submit videos pertaining to the themes identified as priorities for that year’s COP conference. The top twenty videos in each category are then added to the Youth Climate Report project. In addition, the winners of the competition are flown to the host country of that year’s COP conference where their films are premiered at an awards ceremony.

The map above presents climate action being taken by youth from around the world and includes entries from the Global Youth Video Competition, the Film4Climate Global Video Competition, the Planetary Health Film Lab, the Student Life Levy of Wilfrid Laurier University, and the Young Reporters for the Environment competition. The map and video entries are publicly available for everyone to interact with the project.

Mark Terry, PhD

Mark Terry, certified in climate integration for youth programs by UNITAR, UNCC, and UNICEF, has been providing visible evidence of climate research to the United Nations since 2009. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a contract professor at the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at York University and the Faculty of Arts at Wilfrid Laurier University, and an environmental documentary filmmaker. He is the Executive Director of the Youth Climate Report, a non-profit NGO.