Youth4GreenPolicy: Engaging Youth Voices in Europe's Sustainable Future

About the project

Youth4GreenPolicy is a CERV project coordinated by EMOTiC with 15 partner organisations across Europe. It helps young people take part in shaping European sustainability policy, giving them the tools, competences and platforms to engage critically with climate-related policy and decision-making at local, national and EU level.

Many young people care deeply about the climate but feel unheard, or step back from polarising and disruptive forms of protest. Youth4GreenPolicy offers a positive, democratic alternative: climate participation as policy-shaping, rooted in dialogue, critical thinking and collaborative problem-solving. Young people are treated not as an audience for climate messages but as co-creators of sustainable futures.

Participants work with three tools. The SDGs Intelligence Cards open locally rooted conversations on the 17 SDGs through ecological, economic and social lenses. In the Green Quest simulation game they negotiate a wind farm project as NGOs, developers, state agencies, tourism chambers and farmers, and experience how compromises are reached. In Critical Climate Debates they argue positions as citizens, media, policymakers and scientists, with evidence and empathy.

Media literacy runs through every activity. Greenwashing, disinformation and eco-populist narratives make it harder for young people to form independent, evidence-based opinions, so participants learn to spot misleading content, recognise bias and assess sustainability policies from several perspectives, including the trade-offs well-meant measures can create.

The programme started with a transnational working group in Riga and an online survey on how young people in more than 20 countries engage with climate issues. Trainings for youth workers follow in Vienna, Ljubljana and Athens, with participants from more than 16 countries, and each training is followed by local activities in every partner country. In April 2026 EMOTiC ran the training of multipliers EcoDigital Citizens for Green Democracy (26–30 April) as part of the project.

An online community brings everyone together between events, with webinars, recorded content, debate threads and dedicated spaces for youth workers, facilitators and young changemakers. Climate myth-busting quizzes, webinars with stakeholders, an online conference and a youth bootcamp in Vienna for the most active young people turn short-term participation into lasting civic engagement.

Youth workers are at the centre of this transformation. Through the trainings and resources they gain new tools and the confidence to organise dialogues, run simulations and support young people in turning their ideas into local responses to EU challenges. As coordinator, EMOTiC develops the project materials and guidance and delivers the transnational trainings.

Gender equality is built into the content and delivery, with gender-balanced participation, gender-sensitive roles in the simulation games and young women and non-binary youth encouraged to take on visible leadership roles.