Two young leaders, supported by a team of nine young delegates, all from the United Kingdom (UK) have come back from Egypt having represented the youth of the UK at COP27 – the world’s biggest climate change conference.

Since 2021, the Future Leaders Network (FLN) has selected young leaders to represent the UK at COP, including for last year’s COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland. After fierce competition, FLN selected two young leaders – Anna Gardner and Marc Tilley –  who represented the views of UK youth at this year’s COP27 negotiations in Egypt. Supporting them, in the areas of advocacy, communications and research, was a team of nine young delegates from the UK – Josh Oxby, Patricia Gonçalves, Nikita Shrubsole, Katie Riley, Hannah Harrison, Kayley Curtis, Madelaine Constance, Amy Campbell and Jasmine Brittan.

At COP27 in Egypt, the delegation set out to advocate for more meaningful youth participation. They worked with other youth delegates and organisations to get more young people into sites of negotiation and to make specific references to young people in the texts. At the UK level, the delegates spent time at the UK pavilion pushing for a formal UK youth delegation at COP28. The Communications delegates – Kayley Curtis, Hannah Harrison and Katie Riley – used social media to make COP27 accessible and engaging for other young people in the UK and beyond, reaching more than 11,000 people.

COP27 resulted in some positive outcomes for young people and we welcome these. This year saw FLN deliver the first ever Children and Youth Pavilion where FLN’s Chief Executive Officer, Sophie Daud, discussed the Youth Negotiators Academy and was joined by the Kenyan Ministry of Environment. The FLN COP27 Delegation also endorsed the African Youth Declaration for Climate Mobility. And young people have become official stakeholders in climate policy under the ACE action plan. More broadly, the delegation celebrates the agreement to provide funding for “loss and damage” but recognises that many young people feel let down by the failure to incorporate the phasing out of fossil fuels in the final agreement.

Madelaine Constance, Amy Campbell and Jasmine Brittan, FLN’s COP27 Research Delegates, are set to release a written report summarising the team’s reflections on the decisions made at COP27.

Anna Gardner, COP27 Climate and Environment Delegate, commented:

“There is still so much to do to keep the goal of 1.5 degrees alive. Spending time at COP with young people from all over the world gives me hope as we keep pushing for further climate action.”