Climate Resilience Collective (CRC)
The CRC is a large-scale, multi-partner initiative formed around regional pilots, and focused on creating enabling conditions to scale youth-led action.
About the climate resilience collective
By convening diverse co-creators like our regional partners in the Bay of Bengal and the sub-Arctic, we identified synergies and then scaled opportunities for youth to lead the just, climate-resilient futures they deserve.
The CRC aimed to amplify voices and solutions from the frontlines by:
Building leadership and capacity for youth to take collective action;
Fostering synergies between North and South; and,
Identifying and filling gaps related to financing and collaboration.
The CRC worked with members of the Collective to build the resources, support, and pathways needed to foster meaningful and lasting community during COVID-19, and across cultures, regions, and issues.
Bridging the divides between North and South
Climate spaces often lack an understanding of cross-cultural contexts and global impacts of the climate crisis. However, through the CRC, we aim to magnify the strength and impact of frontline voices and action, and build solidarity through the similarities of struggles, regardless of geographic proximity. Building a North-South collaboration also creates opportunities to look beyond classic scientific knowledge and break the hierarchy between various ways of knowing. At the same time, an unlikely combination of partners allows us to share a broader range of best practices, case studies, and action opportunities – while experimenting with collaboration and meeting co-conspirators.
WHO IS IN THE CRC?
In 2021, 24 youth from two distinct, and hard-hit by climate change regions – the Bay of Bengal (across Bangladesh), and the sub-Arctic (across the Yukon Region, Canada) – participated in YCL's Climate Resilience Collective.
In the Bay of Bengal, the key partner is the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), an environmental research institute established in 2009 through a joint collaboration between International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, and Independent University Bangladesh (IUB).
In the sub-Arctic, the key partners include the Assembly of First Nations, Yukon Region, and The Council of Yukon First Nations. These partners are facilitating the Yukon First Nations Climate Action Fellowship, a 20-month project on youth-driven climate action. The Fellowship was recognized and encouraged by Yukon leadership in February 2020, following a gathering of youth who created a Youth Climate Declaration. The Declaration was then endorsed by Leadership as the path to follow in creating a Yukon First Nations Climate Vision & Action Plan.
CRC Associates: Bangladesh, with ICCCAD
CRC Associates: Yukon First Nations, with AFN & CYFN
What themes did each of the regional pilots address?
Each region's themes were further directed by the participant journey and the local projects that their participants embark on.
When launching the Bay of Bengal regional pilot, not only was the region hit by the COVID-19 global pandemic, but also by Super Cyclonic Storm Amphan, a powerful and catastrophic tropical cyclone that caused widespread damage to communities and infrastructure. As such, community-based adaptation emerged as a key theme for youth to engage with, in order to be directly involved in ongoing work and learnings around repair and adaptation.
In the sub-Arctic, the CRC regional pilot worked with the Yukon First Nations Climate Action Fellowship to kick off their two-year journey through themes of climate justice and Indigenous worldviews. Within these themes the project focused on ‘reconnecting’ – with land, across borders, around the globe, and with history and identity.
Each pilot cultivated an intimate understanding of the consequences of climate change, and connections between the youth who experience these. There are also clear linkages between each of the pilots and the CRC itself, through their recognition of local and community knowledge, and around youth innovation and youth-driven climate solutions. YCL and the CRC supported programming infrastructure by providing co-design input, tools, and resources.