The Future We Want: Sri Lanka’s youth step up to shape the country’s climate agenda for young people
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By Bodh Maathura,
A Champion for children
Climate change has been a ‘hot’ topic—literally—for decades. Every year, we live beyond our means, emitting more than our annual quota and borrowing from the future. Like any overdue loan, the debt collector eventually comes knocking. We’re already seeing the costs, but the heaviest price will be paid by youth, children, and future generations. That’s why it is our moral obligation to lighten the load.
Each country sets its own plans through Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to play its part in the fight against climate change, revising them every five years to set more ambitious targets. 2025 marked the year of revision—NDC 3.0. As young people, we wanted to ensure that our future, and that of generations to come, was protected. We wanted a seat at the table.
I joined a technical discussion organized by UNICEF Sri Lanka to strategize youth engagement in the NDC revision process—and I was the only young person in the room. My input was simple: “Let’s ask more young people.” Across the board, there was agreement.
The session was restructured, this time with 12 young people representing youth organizations involved in climate action, forming the NDC Youth Sounding Board. With UNICEF as our main ally, our mandate was clear: ensure youth voices are included in the NDCs through a youth-led strategy. The discussions led to four key strategies: creating an NDC Knowledge Hub to raise awareness among youth, holding a national youth consultation on NDCs, ensuring youth participation in each Ministry-organized NDC revision consultation, and taking stock of youth-led actions to track impact. At the core, we aimed to represent the diverse needs of youth—especially vulnerable and marginalized groups—ensuring inclusivity at every stage
While young people were stepping into the spotlight, UNICEF Sri Lanka was working steadily behind the scenes to make it possible. “UNICEF has actively advocated for the inclusion of children and youth in the NDC 3.0 process to ensure their voices are heard and their needs prioritized. As those most affected by the climate crisis, it is imperative that children and youth are not only protected but also empowered to shape the decisions that impact their lives and futures. Intergenerational equity demands that young people are meaningfully engaged in climate policy and action from now on,” explains Watsala Jayamanna, Programme Officer (Emergency Response & Resilience) at UNICEF.
Together with her team, she has been a driving force behind youth inclusion, helping to establish the NDC Youth Sounding Board. This partnership between UNICEF and young climate advocates is a clear example of how intergenerational alliances can lead to strong advocacy campaigns that deliver sustainable, positive outcomes.
UNICEF reconvened the cohort of District Climate Change Agents trained with the National Youth Services Council to discuss how they were identifying climate impacts in their communities.
As Kavinda Dissanayaka, a Climate Change Agent from Ratnapura, shared: “The training opened our eyes to how climate change is affecting our communities and showed us ways to respond—whether by changing our personal habits or by advocating for stronger policies, like the ecological rehabilitation of decommissioned mines, which remains a great threat in my city.”
These change agents joined Sri Lanka’s first-ever youth-focused NDC consultation, raising the needs of youth and children, advocating for ambitious mitigation, and emphasizing the need for opportunities for young people in the green workforce.
Strengthened by youth recommendations from across Sri Lanka, the NDC Youth Sounding Board participated in the NDC consultations hosted by the Ministry of Environment. At least one young person sat at each of the 15 sectoral working group tables. Initially, we received puzzled looks and questions about why we were there, but as discussions progressed, the groups warmed up—though still with a hint of skepticism.
“As youth advocates, we had to consistently push to include mental health in the health sector NDCs. There was resistance for multiple reasons, such as the lack of data in the Sri Lankan context,” shared Sajini Wickramasinghe, Youth Fellow at the Climate Vulnerable Forum. “However, we were able to convince officials that including it in the NDCs would inherently support more funding for research and programs.”
These efforts ensured that NDC 2 of the Health Sector captured mental health, stating: “Capacity building of the health system, as well as increasing the research and evidence of climate-related NCDs including mental health, are envisioned under this NDC.”
Sajini reflects: “Now, in the final output, mental health is recognized as an area of concern. It is a small but significant win toward progressive NDCs and embodies the power of youth in advocacy.”
With the sheer number of young people present in the room—and their advocacy—Sri Lanka’s NDCs, for the first time, acknowledge that: “The Paris Agreement places a critical importance on ‘inter-generational equity’ where climate actions need to be designed not only to safeguard the present, but also to ensure a sustainable and equitable future for children, youth, and future generations.”
This recognition is further substantiated by the inclusion of NDCs that safeguard and create opportunities for children and youth to actively participate in climate action. The word “youth” appears 46 times in NDC 3.0, compared to just 2 mentions in NDC 2.0—a clear testament to the growing recognition of young voices in shaping climate policy.
As we focus on the next, more important stage—meeting these ambitious targets—there is still a long way to go in enhancing youth engagement. As Tharushi Weerasinghe, UNICEF Youth Advocate, shares: “Youth participation in this year’s NDCs reached unprecedented levels, with far more recommendations adopted than in previous revisions. This needs to be modeled across all climate policies. Sustained, meaningful engagement must expand to include young people from diverse and vulnerable communities, with clear pathways for their ideas to shape final policies and implementation.”
Building on these successes, a stronger institutional mechanism is needed to ensure youth engagement is not only maintained but expanded. Young people will be the workforce that determines whether these targets are met.
The NDC Youth Sounding Board, with the support of UNICEF, successfully brought diverse youth voices to the table and mainstreamed youth into Sri Lanka’s NDC 3.0. If there is one lesson from our journey on how to best enhance youth engagement at the NDC implementation stage, it is simple: “Ask more young people.”