Nottingham Youth Climate Assembly 2022

In July 2022, we supported Nottingham Climate Assembly to run Nottingham’s first ever Citizens Assembly. The aim was to engage young people in campaigning for action on climate change and to give them support to have their voices heard.

Colourful cartoon depicting a hand holding the Earth aloft

Who organised the event?

Nottingham Climate Assembly (NCA) is a local community organisation aiming to promote greater awareness of climate issues and increase participation in the decisions being made to address global warming and climate change.

Academics and students from University of Nottingham helped facilitate the day, with the Institute providing support and also funding the creation of a youth manifesto as a lasting legacy of the event.

Other partners included local organisations the Pythian Club and Green Meadows, along with Green Hustle. The event was further supported by the expertise of Involve, a national organisation that aims to ‘put people at the heart of decision making’. The Assembly wsa funded by the National Lottery Community Fund.

Who attended?

The event was well-attended, with young people from across Nottingham taking part.

The Assembly’s members were aged between 15-18, supported by a Youth Panel of people aged up to 25.

Since young people are often excluded from these decisions, and yet will be the most affected over time, NCA delivered a Youth Climate Assembly where young people could engage with the issues at a policy level, and put forward their views to local and national government decision makers.

During the event there were a number of activities, talks and various sessions to educate and engage young people from a variety of different backgrounds.

Colourful cartoon drawing depicting a group of colourful people with raised hands

For more details, check out this blog by one of the key organisers, Rosanna Wilson >

What were the event outcomes?

One legacy of the conference is a fantastic bug hotel, depicted in the image at the top of this page. This now stands in University of Nottingham's Millenium Garden.

Another key outcome of the Assembly is the youth manifesto. This was produced following the Assembly to draw together the ideas developed and create a lasting legacy for the event. The manifesto contains a number of recommendations, which were grouped into four key areas: