To address global climate change, young people from around the world are developing award-winning projects, and creative commercial solutions and films honored at the Global Youth Summit on Net-Zero Future (Climate x Summit) held by the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate (GAUC).

"Young people know that if we fail to act, they will be the ones who face the most severe consequences of climate change -- which is why they aren't waiting until they're older to lead. They're doing it right now," said Michael R. Bloomberg, the U.N. Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Climate Ambition and Solutions.

The Summit held competitions in "Three Tracks" from October 25th to 29th, including the Climate Research Competition (Academic Track), co-organized by Columbia University, the University of Oxford, Yale University and Tsinghua University; the ActNowFilm Project (Voice Track), calling for short video clips from global youth on their ideas, suggestions, and actions towards climate change, led by the University of Cambridge and the Institute for Policy Research at Bath University, and sponsored by the COP26 UK Universities network; and a mini-hackathon (Action Track) for climate change solutions, organized by Imperial College London.

The Academic Track received 150 project submissions from graduate students of over 50 universities in 12 nations. The Voice Track received 140 video/film submissions across six continents. 36 students from 7 GAUC universities participated in the Action Track.

The Awards Ceremony was held in two venues simultaneously on November 5th: in the COP26 China Corporate Pavilion in Glasgow where world leaders were gathering, and at Tsinghua University in China. The Awards showcase the unwavering commitment by higher education to bring fresh proposals, innovative ideas and youthful energy to address the climate change.

"Climate change is one of the most frequently discussed topics nowadays. How to deal with climate change and mitigate natural disaster risks have become serious issues for all countries, which require collective efforts of the global community. This decade is an extremely important period in the history of humanity, as it will determine whether we can achieve a carbon-neutral future. Young people play a vital role in achieving this goal," Tsinghua University President Qiu Yong said.

10 graduate students won honors for their outstanding research on the synergy between climate and other areas, namely Nature/Biodiversity, Energy, Health/Food, Transportation, and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Deng Zhu, a Ph.D candidate at Tsinghua, presented his award-winning research. 

After a short introduction by Emily Shuckburgh, Director of Cambridge Zero, University of Cambridge, the ceremony also played part of the Voice Track project — ActNowFilm. The full film will be shown in the COP26 Green Zone on Nov. 11.

"This film brings the voice of youth to COP26. Cambridge Zero is delighted to have co-led this initiative with the Bath Institute for Policy Research, sponsored by the COP26 UK Universities Network and supported by GAUC," Emily mentioned in her speech.

The team named Adaptables, with their pitch for an interactive app, SEAadapta, won the Climate x Hackathon Prize (Action Track).

"This initiative showcased the importance of international collaboration, multidisciplinary research and addressing the co-benefits of climate change solutions. The students in the Action Track demonstrated the advantages of working with others from different disciplines and backgrounds, to allow new ideas to germinate and develop into potential solutions. The selected students showed enthusiasm, creativity, and resourcefulness, and we believe that the experience of the activity will have a positive impact," said Martin Siegert, Professor of Geosciences and co-Director of the Grantham Institute, Imperial College London.

In addition, student representatives from the GAUC universities made the "Global Youth Climate Declaration". Inspired by the Climate x Summit, the participants from the Voice Track initiated the declaration and gathered modifications and signatures from youth across six continents, aiming to inspire more youth to take part in climate action and calling the youth to be "better implementors, better researchers, better advocates and better cooperators".

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