ActNowFilm

ActNowFilm: Youth Climate Leaders as Agents of Change (2024)

The 2024 film is currently in production with DrummerTV. The film weaves together the insights of global climate experts with the narratives and actions of young people from across the world. Telling a story of impact and agency, it demonstrates the global and interconnected nature of the climate crisis. It highlights the imperative need for ambitious climate action and calls for the official integration of young people in climate negotiations.

The film explores key themes:

• Planetary systems and tipping points (including melting ice and rising sea levels)
• Food systems (including crop production affected by climate change, food security)
• Extreme weather (including flooding, droughts, wildfires)
• Loss and damage (including finance)
• Forced displacement or migration as a result of the climate crisis
• Human health (physical and mental)
• Nature and biodiversity
• Global governance (including participation in climate networks, engagement in decision-making processes)

Education and skills in the ActNowFilm Project

The ActNowFilm team is working in collaboration with UNFCCC Youth4Capacity to deliver educational workshops and training to international young climate negotiators. 

At the Bonn Climate Change Conference in June 2024, we hosted a session on Decoding UNFCCC Language in collaboration with Youth4Capacity, Climate Words and ClimaTalk. 

The ActNowFilm team is also supporting the Climate Catalysts Mentorship Programme, a collaborative effort between UNFCCC’s Youth4Capacity programme and the UNDP’s Youth4Climate initiative. The mentorship programme aims to empower youth to engage in the climate action landscape effectively through interactive courses, workshops and bootcamps. 

ActNowFilm: Youth Climate Leaders in Conversation with Climate Experts (2023)

ActNowFilm: Youth Climate Leaders in Conversation with Climate Experts brought together youth climate leaders and prominent climate experts from 33 countries across six continents. Through 1-2-1 conversations, they explored their personal experiences of the devastating impacts of climate change, their perspectives on the COP process, the critical role of young people, and ways to empower them to be at the frontline of global climate action and key decision-making processes.

Mary Robinson features in the film alongside other influential global climate experts, such as Christiana Figueres (former Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC), Dr Fatih Birol (Executive Director of the International Energy Agency), Prof Katharine Hayhoe (Chief Scientist, The Nature Conservancy), Prof Johan Rockström (Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research), Sir Alok Sharma MP (President of COP26), Sir David King (former Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK government), and Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim (President, Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad).

Youth climate leaders who have contributed to ActNowFilm include Inés Yábar, who successfully campaigned for Peru to ban single-use plastic bags, and Raina Ivanova, a climate justice activist from Germany who was part of the ‘Children vs. Climate Crisis’ petition, alongside Greta Thunberg. Three young people featured in the film are also part of the International Youth Climate Delegate Program - an initiative by the COP28 UAE Presidency embedding 100 youth delegates from around the world in this year's negotiations.

You can see the full list of participants in the 2023 film here. 

The 2023 film was supported by the UK Universities Climate Network (UUCN), in partnership with One Young World, and produced by Octopus Films.

ActNowFilm showcased on 8 December in the COP28 Green Zone, as part of Youth, Children, Education and Skills Day, and on 9 December in the COP28 Blue Zone. Both screenings were followed by panel discussions, featuring participants in the film and members of the ActNowFilm project team.

Watch the 2023 film here.

Read about our premiere at COP28, which had an introduction from Mary Robinson.

Watch the recording of our premiere at COP28.

ActNowFilm: Intergenerational Conversations on Climate Change (2022)

The 2022 film, Intergenerational Conversations on Climate Change, which was drawn from submissions from every continent except Antarctica, features intergenerational conversations in which both young and older people share their lived experiences of climate change, as well as their hopes and fears for the future. It shows the rapid escalation of climate impacts on people and places over the lifetimes of participants, in multiple locations across the world, and that now is the time for urgent action to stop climate change.

The film was showcased in the Blue Zone at COP27 on 9 November 2022.

It was produced in partnership with ForAfrika, the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate (GAUC), and Plant-for-the-Planet.

Watch the 2022 film here.

ActNowFilm: Youth Voices on Climate (2021)

The 2021 film, Youth Voices on Climate, showcases the views of 16-30 year olds and is drawn from films submitted by over 140 young people from 32 countries. In the film, young people from across the world share their lived experiences of climate change; their hopes and ambitions for the future; and their 'asks' of the climate change negotiators, as well as their own climate pledges. They share, in their own words, why stopping climate change is important to them – the future generation.

This film was launched at a Green Zone event at COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021. It was also showcased at the GAUC Climate x Summit, COP15 on Biodiversity, Climate Week NYC and the Vatican Youth Symposium.

It was produced in partnership with student volunteers and the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate (GAUC).

Watch the 2021 film here.

Project Team

• Dr Amy Munro-Faure 
• Amy Thompson
• Elizabeth Simpson
• Amy O’Brien
• Thea Wright
• Millie May