Flexible Networks Asserting Agency: Youth Participation in UNFCCC Processes
(2026) Global Environmental Politics — Vol. XX, n° X, p. 1-25 (2026)
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- (en) Youth are increasingly regarded as key actors in climate politics. At the global level, youth participation is visible at the conferences of the parties (COPs) to the UNFCCC. While the number of youth participants has gradually increased, the structural dimensions of youth participation, especially their networks in international policymaking, remain underexplored. This article addresses this knowledge gap by analyzing youth involvement at the UNFCCC COPs from COP1 to COP27 using social network analysis. By examining coaffiliation and side-event co-organization networks, we argue that youth actors persistently contribute to climate political spaces as active network cocreators. Despite structural inequalities, youth-to-youth collaboration, from both Global South and Global North, bridges informal and formal modes of engagement in climate politics, asserting youth agency. Moreover, the varied communities of youth networks show that youth are heterogeneous actors pursuing diverse mobilization strategies, not necessarily based on ideational affinity.
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Kang, Y. h., & Orsini, A. (2026). Flexible Networks Asserting Agency: Youth Participation in UNFCCC Processes. Global Environmental Politics, XX(X), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1162/glep.a.775 (Original work published 2026)