WHAT happens when you bring 100 young climate activists from across ASEAN together for three days?
The scenic beaches of Pantai Tengah, Langkawi bore witness from 2 to 4 September when the ASEAN Children & Youth Climate Summit (ACYCS) 2025 took place. Organised by UNICEF Malaysia and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability (NRES), with support from the Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS) and the Langkawi Development Authority (LADA), the summit gathered indigenous youth, community leaders and climate advocates from across the region.
At the same time, Langkawi also hosted the 18th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on the Environment (AMME), with Malaysia serving as ASEAN Chair. In a historic first, the delegates of ACYCS 2025 presented their ASEAN Children and Youth Statement on Climate Action, known as the Langkawi Declaration, directly to AMME ministers and the President of COP30. Facilitated by UNICEF Malaysia, this unprecedented platform marked a major step forward in embedding meaningful child and youth participation in climate policy.
The summit itself was full of energy. Delegates shared projects, debated policy priorities and bonded over their shared urgency to act.
From restoring mangroves and composting waste to leading local climate education campaigns, their work proved that no action is too small.
Each project was a spark lighting up a much larger movement for a sustainable region.
It was also a learning experience for the delegates. Rather than sit passively in conference rooms, delegates explored Langkawi’s mangroves, joined interactive sessions and exchanged stories that sparked new ways of thinking about the climate crisis. Activities such as the privilege walk and foresight exercises provoked tough but honest conversations about inequality and the futures they wanted to create. Youth-led workshops became mini laboratories of ideas where delegates honed their skills in advocacy and storytelling while gaining exposure to emerging fields and fresh perspectives.
This summit also underscored what is at stake:
Forty-one per cent of children in ASEAN already face five or more overlapping climate and environmental shocks, which is nearly triple the global average.
This is a crisis they did not cause, yet they are living its harshest effects. Late into the night, delegates negotiated and refined their statement. What began as a room full of strangers became a unified movement around a single message.
Their final call, the ASEAN Children and Youth Statement on Climate Action, urges the region to advance youth participation, child-centred climate policies, climate education, a just energy transition, climate-resilient services, fair climate finance and sustainable food systems.
Usually playing a participant role at such conferences, I found being in the strange shoes of part of the summit secretariat team was as humbling as it was inspiring. Over three days I watched delegates arrive as strangers and leave as collaborators, carrying new skills, alliances and a renewed sense of purpose. Seeing their creativity, courage and persistence up close deepened my appreciation for how much young people are already doing to confront the climate crisis. It also reminded me how vital organisations like UNICEF are in bringing together these young eco-warriors and creating spaces where their voices are heard and their ideas taken seriously.
As the summit concludes, my biggest hope is that this summit will not remain a three-day event but instead mark the start of ongoing collaboration between governments, institutions and young people. The Langkawi Declaration is a call to action and a promise of partnership. If leaders and communities rise to meet it, the spirit of this summit will ripple from Langkawi’s shores to every corner of the region, carrying the voices and ideas of the next generation.
