A new generation is turning the tide on urgent climate action

Two-thirds of teenagers recognize climate change as an emergency, but only 9% of youth are very confident that the world will act quickly enough to address the problem. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has called 2021 the “make it or break it year” for climate action, and young people know they can’t afford to wait until they’re older — they need to fight now, and they need our support. The following exciting new environmental initiatives supported by Bloomberg and Bloomberg Philanthropies are enabling a new generation of bright young thinkers to get involved in urgent climate action that will safeguard their future, and ours.

Supporting the next generation

One of the most crucial ways that we can ally with young people in the fight against climate change is by supporting and encouraging their big ideas and creativity. The Earthshot Prize aims to do this on a global scale. Founded by HRH Prince William in 2020, and inspired by President Kennedy’s Moonshot, The Earthshot Prize aims to discover, spotlight and scale the best solutions to the world’s greatest environmental challenges and will award five £1 million prizes for inclusive climate solutions to repair our planet every year from now until 2030. See the 2021 Earthshot Prize winners here.

Generation Earthshot, which complements The Earthshot Prize, is a way for kids and teens to join in Earthshot’s core mission of using creative problem solving, design thinking, and innovation to address the climate and nature crisis. With support from Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Earthshot Prize’s Global Alliance Network, Generation Earthshot provides a free toolkit for teachers around the world to nurture and channel their students’ innate optimism and creativity towards solving our biggest environmental challenges.

See Prince William’s message to young people at the first ever Earthshot Prize awards ceremony.

Accelerating climate education

Ensuring that climate education is engaging and accessible for young people is another key element in the all-hands-on-deck project of protecting the planet. Bloomberg is also deepening its partnership with the Mayor of London by supporting the Mayor’s Climate Kick-Start in London, through which schools have had the opportunity to bid for up to £10,000 of funding each to kick-start or accelerate exemplary environmental projects. With this kind of support and structure in place, thousands of London students will work together to tackle environmental threats including climate change, deforestation, biodiversity loss, air pollution, and single-use plastics.

The Climate Kick-Start will also feature a week of flagship events funded through activity grants in early November ranging from a sustainable fashion show and clean-tech career fair, to tree planting and pedal-powered activity days. The week is designed to educate and empower young people to go further and faster to address global environmental issues, help them improve their local environment, and to showcase the fantastic work that so many schools are already doing. The week will culminate in a prize giving event at the Barbican, where the Mayor of London will announce the winners of the climate grants.

For university students, Bloomberg is serving as the Convening Partner at The Global Alliance of Universities on Climate (GAUC)’s week-long Global Young Summit on Net-Zero Future held in late October. More than 400 students from over 50 universities will join the hybrid summit, which is broken out into three tracks: Academic (in which participants are encouraged to submit academic papers); Action (in which participants will have the chance to hear from Bloomberg employees and team up to develop climate solutions during a hackathon); and Voice (in which participants are encouraged to submit video clips detailing their ideas for action on climate change). The summit will conclude with an awards ceremony hosted at COP26, the 2021 United Nations climate change conference being held in Glasgow from Oct. 31 through Nov. 12.

In the US, BloombergNEF is partnering with City University of New York (CUNY) Baruch College for a seminar titled, “Pathways in the clean energy transition and career opportunities.” The course, focused on careers that will drive the economic transition to net-zero emissions, follows a series of BloombergNEF client case studies and industries that are expected to grow and offer jobs in the coming years. The course will serve as a pilot for future energy transition education sessions.

Helping everyone breathe easier

As leaders and young people around the world join forces to strategize for a sustainable future, they’re also focused on solutions that can make an immediate, tangible difference in climate-related quality of life. And for young people living in cities, even simple changes can have a serious impact on local air quality and breathability.

In Brussels, Bloomberg Philanthropies is supporting the Brussels Clean Air partnership for the launch of a large-scale citizen science study that will see 3,000 households, schools, businesses, and associations participate to measure air quality in locations throughout the city, with results to be published in March 2022.

A similar project is underway in London, where Mike Bloomberg has partnered with Mayor Sadiq Khan to make a joint investment to fund the day-to-day running of nearly 350 air quality sensors across the city. Under the ethos that information is power, data from the monitors will be available for Londoners to check at any time on the Breathe London website. Placement of the sensors have expanded to include cultural institutions for the first time, from Serpentine to Kew Gardens.

When it comes to improving urban air quality, students stand to benefit directly. Data from Breathe London has already shown that closing roads around schools to traffic at pick-up and drop-off times — part of the city’s School Streets initiative — has reduced polluting nitrogen levels by as much as 23%, and is widely popular with parents. “Cities have a responsibility to protect kids from air pollution — but if they can’t measure it, they can’t manage it,” Mike Bloomberg said. “This initiative empowers the public to fight air pollution and make school communities safer, and it’s exciting to think how its findings could help improve children’s health not just across London, but in cities that follow suit around the world.”

Getting people into nature

One essential, but often underrated, element of the process of fighting climate change: spending time in the environment that you’re trying to save. And if students can’t easily access nature outside of their city, we can bring nature to them.

Bloomberg and Bloomberg Associates have backed Earthwatch Europe’s initiative to plant hundreds of tiny or ‘Wee Forests’ in urban areas across the UK by 2023. Bloomberg is collaborating with Earthwatch Europe and the Glasgow Science Centre to plant and monitor a Wee Forest in Glasgow that will serve as a living legacy from COP26. The Wee Forest is designed to connect residents of Glasgow’s urban areas to nature, thereby creating more resilient communities, and informing, inspiring, and empowering local students and teachers to connect with the natural world. This goal is also supported by the Glasgow Science Centre’s education project, ‘Learning Lab: Our World, Our Impact.’

Wee Forests are made up of 600 densely packed native trees in a space the size of a tennis court. They are capable of attracting over 500 animal and plant species within the first three years, and provide rich opportunities for engaging young and old alike with the environment and sustainability.

Bloomberg is supporting yet another program that will help create a lasting and local legacy. Led by an inspirational group of local and international artists, Create4Glasgow will harness the ambition and creativity of young people to produce digital artwork which proposes practical solutions to contribute to the Race to Zero in Glasgow. Inspired by Glasgow’s Asphalt Art Initiative, the project will see artists and educators working with young people to discuss how they could transform their creative ideas into potential projects which support the environment.

Many of these projects culminate in Bloomberg’s presence at COP26. In anticipation of the event, Bloomberg Philanthropies has kicked off a 60-day countdown of climate actions. The efforts build upon Bloomberg’s commitment to strengthening climate capacity, and to promote climate ambition across the UN through dozens of climate and environment focused investments, partnerships, capacity-building, and educational efforts. By participating in a diverse set of efforts and bringing young people into the fold as part of the process, Bloomberg is working to build momentum and catalyze climate action worldwide for a sustainable, healthy future.