Two Danish youth delegates have brought an eight-minute film and a four-point youth climate manifesto to COP31 in Antalya, pressing negotiators to give young people a real seat at the table as the summit’s youth week builds towards Children and Youth Day on Saturday 14 November.
A film made by young people, for the negotiators
Marie Smedegaard Andersen and Rosa Pedersen, among Denmark’s youth representatives at the United Nations summit, helped make the film with other young people at Klimatorium, a climate centre in Lemvig. It brings together climate perspectives from young people around the world and says they should be heard and included in climate debates, with a place at the negotiating table, according to DR, Denmark’s public broadcaster, as reported on 11 November.
Andersen said it was exciting to present the video at the summit, while Pedersen described representing young people in Denmark’s official delegation as a privilege. Andersen added that young people could achieve more by organising together.
Pedersen is due to speak at a reception where other young participants will watch the film. Both delegates also hope to contribute to the wording of the negotiations.
The four-point manifesto
The video closes with a four-part youth climate manifesto. It calls for:
- Young people to be treated as equal partners in climate governance.
- COP talks to focus more on action and accountability.
- Climate policy to respect planetary limits and fairness between generations.
- Climate action grounded in equality and human rights.
The delegates said international climate negotiations can move slowly because countries must reach agreement, and Pedersen said young people need to recognise small gains to maintain hope.
Today: the youth statement goes to governments
Today, Thursday 12 November, the youth agenda continues at the summit. The Global Youth Statement 2026 is formally launched into national climate plans and sustainable development roadmaps at the SDG Pavilion from 17:00 to 18:15. The statement was shaped by more than 100,000 children and young people in 90 countries over the past year and presented to the COP31 Presidency at the close of the COY21 youth conference on 7 November. Its five priorities are faster implementation, a fossil fuel phase-out with a just transition, the right to a healthy environment, protection for environmental human rights defenders, and youth participation and leadership.
Earlier today, the Children and Youth Pavilion hosted a session on advancing youth-led climate advocacy through the Culture Global Stocktake, linking culture, youth priorities and the Global Youth Statement ahead of the Action for Climate Empowerment midterm review.
Young people are also part of the delegations themselves. One hundred young climate negotiators trained at the Youth Negotiators Academy in Antalya from 5 to 7 November, ahead of the summit, and three young New Zealanders — Ataria MacDonald, Aigagalefili Fepulea’i-Tapua’i and Aditi Tiwari — are attending COP31 as civil society delegates, pressing for Pacific communities to be at the forefront of climate action.
The road to Children and Youth Day
Tomorrow, Friday 13 November, the Youth-led Climate Forum holds its third session, on adaptation and loss and damage, carrying a youth proposal for adaptation finance of at least 120 billion US dollars a year well ahead of 2035, with recommendations to inform COP31 guidance to the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage.
Saturday 14 November is Children, Youth, Education and Skills Day, the summit’s themed day for young people. The Youth-led Climate Forum holds its headline event and youth-negotiator roundtable from 11:00 to 14:00 in the Plenary Akdeniz hall, putting young people in direct dialogue with negotiators. The British Council leads a series of panels on green skills and green jobs, including a session on connecting young people to the electrified industry at the ILO Just Transition Pavilion, a discussion on pathways from green skills to local green jobs at the Children and Youth Pavilion, and a session with Türkiye’s Council of Higher Education on how universities can equip learners for the green transition. Ireland’s pavilion hosts a session on Action for Climate Empowerment, asking how climate education can bridge the gap between ambition and action.
Beyond Saturday: education, culture and legacy
On Monday 16 November, the COP31 Presidency convenes its mandated event on education, public awareness and children and youth, asking how climate science can be turned into climate action. The UNFCCC agenda includes speakers from the IPCC and UNESCO, a world café on youth engagement, and a panel with the UN youth constituency YOUNGO, the Youth Advisory Committee of the Science Panel for the Amazon, Türkiye’s Climate Envoys and Monash University.
On Tuesday 17 November, the COP30 Presidency looks back at its youth legacy with a “Youth Mutirão” session at the Brazil Pavilion, on what the Belém summit left for children and young people.
The Children and Youth Pavilion itself, the only fully youth-led space at a UN climate conference, returns at COP31 with ten young spokespersons aged 14 to 31, working on climate justice, biodiversity, clean energy, the circular economy, resilient cities, climate finance and youth participation. Around 1.8 billion people worldwide are aged between 10 and 24, according to the COP31 Presidency — the generation that will live longest with the consequences of today’s decisions.
For the young delegates in Antalya, the test of the summit will be whether the words they carry into the negotiating rooms come back as decisions. Their film and their manifesto ask for the same thing: not a separate youth corner, but a share in the decisions themselves.
Read more: Youth Take the Floor at COP31 as Forum Sessions Put Adaptation Finance on the Table · New Global Youth Climate Network to Launch at COP31 Tomorrow · Children and Youth Pavilion at COP31
Key facts
- COP31 runs from 9 to 20 November 2026 in Antalya, Türkiye, with representatives from nearly 200 countries.
- Danish youth delegates Marie Smedegaard Andersen and Rosa Pedersen made an eight-minute film with other young people at Klimatorium in Lemvig.
- The Global Youth Statement 2026 was shaped by more than 100,000 children and young people in 90 countries and is launched on 12 November at the SDG Pavilion.
- Children and Youth Day is Saturday 14 November; the Youth-led Climate Forum headline event runs 11:00–14:00 in Plenary Akdeniz.
- The Children and Youth Pavilion is the only fully youth-led space at COP31, with ten spokespersons aged 14 to 31.
- Around 1.8 billion people worldwide are aged between 10 and 24, according to the COP31 Presidency.
