Young people are environmental stewards of the future. Many are also leaders and subject matter experts today. The Climate Champions Team, in support of the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions, are committed to strengthening youth agency in climate action. Elevating and empowering youth voices helps drive systemic change so the Climate Champions continues to position this vital stakeholder group at the heart of its work.
The Climate Champions Team is now looking for its fifth cohort of ambitious and stubbornly optimistic Youth Fellows. The programme creates a pathway for young professionals to work within the team supporting the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions for COP29 and COP30– to drive real world momentum into the UN Climate Change conference in Belém, Brazil and beyond.
As part of the Youth Fellowship programme, you will help mobilise climate action amongst non-State actors to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, in close collaboration with the UNFCCC, the Marrakech Partnership and the COP Presidencies.
To help us deliver on our plan for COP30 and beyond, we are excited to announce Cohort Five of the Youth Fellowship.
Fellows will join the Climate Champions Team for a nine month fellowship, focused on one of the following areas:
The core Campaigns: Race To Zero and Race To Resilience
Systems Transformation: critical sectoral work in Finance, tracking signals of change
Stakeholder and Policy Engagement
Strategic Communications and Events
The fellowship will include modules on personal leadership development, engagement with stakeholders, systems mapping and horizon planning, mobilisation and outreach in broader networks including working closely with local, regional and global youth organisations to ensure knowledge sharing and solutions exchange. There will also be an opportunity for the fellows to work together as a collective to explore projects and outreach.
This is a paid fellowship programme.
Time commitment: The selected fellows will work closely with the respective sector and campaign teams during this fellowship and will be required to commit 16 hours per week.
Duration: The fellowship will run for nine months from April to December 2025
Who should apply
Are you an early- or mid-career professional, aged 18 – 30 as of 1 January 2025. Do you have a record of engagement or expertise in the thematic areas hosting the fellowship, and a history of climate or sustainability advocacy? Are you familiar with multi-stakeholder organising? If so, we strongly encourage you to apply!
Eligibility criteria
Aged 18 – 30 on 1 January 2025
Minimum five years of full-time work OR volunteering experience, either in one of the fellowship sectors, climate leadership or community organising.
Ability to commit a minimum 16 hours a week to the fellowship.
Strong communication skills.
Self-motivated and willingness to be flexible (you will be working with teams across different time zones).
Adequate network relevant to sector-specific or climate-related work
Proficient English language skills. For some roles, certain other languages are also preferred. Please check the job description for more information.
Your own laptop and reliable internet connectivity.
A commitment to the values of the Climate Champions Team to raise non-State actor commitments to the global goals of the Paris Agreement.
Applications are open!
Each sector has specific skills requirements; therefore, we highly recommend you to please read the job descriptions below thoroughly before applying.
