Stand.earth’s Climate Finance Youth Fellowship Supports Next Generation Climate Leaders

Since its launch, the fossil fuel divestment movement has served as a powerful onboarding vehicle for new climate advocates. It is no surprise considering that some of the earliest fossil fuel divestment victories were on college campuses starting in the 2010s, and that the movement has only continued to grow because of youth climate activism. 

Taking a look at the Divestment Database, educational institutions now make up 16% of divestment commitments. Institutions like the University of California System, Harvard University, and George Washington University have adopted full divestment commitments and student activism was clearly one of the main pressure points in these wins. Even before college, new climate leaders are prioritizing fossil fuel divestment as a way to make positive change, with students at high schools successfully pushing The Nueva School, Suzhou Science and Technology Town Foreign Language School, St. Marks School, and more to develop sustainable investment policies. 

Looking beyond educational organizations, young people have been driving other institutions to divest from fossil fuels as well. Multigenerational advocacy can be seen in many pension fund wins. Most recently, this includes Maine Youth for Climate Justice helping pass a law directing Maine’s public pension fund to divestment from fossil fuels and Fridays For Future NYC among a coalition pushing for New York City pension funds to close a loophole in their private equity policy. And at the 2024 Summer of Heat on Wall Street, youth were on the frontlines pushing Citibank to drop fossil fuels. 

 

The list goes on. However, despite the major contributions and leadership from youth organizers to the climate finance movement, the youth climate movement has lacked the investment it needs by adult-led NGOs and foundations. The Youth Climate Finance Alliance’s 2024 “State of the U.S. Youth Climate Movement” notes a lack of resources and funding towards youth-led movements contributes to the challenges youth climate organizations are facing. It also concludes that additional training, mentorship, and a community of support would help combat the challenges they face. Conflict management support, transferring institutional knowledge, strategies to avoid burnout, increased resources, and training in essential campaign and organizing skills were all listed as challenges. A specific need for additional training and mentorship, and a community of support were also mentioned.

In response to the challenges that youth climate finance organizers are facing, Stand.earth has piloted a Youth Climate Finance Fellowship where fellows are placed with partners in the climate finance movement to grow key organizing skills and provide support to partners. In just the first six months of this program, fellows have grown social media followings, engaged union members on fossil fuel divestment, developed organizing toolkits, and contributed crucial financial analysis to multiple climate safe pension campaigns. 

Kaelin Ferland, fellow with Divest Maine and Stand.earth, said:

“Through my Climate Finance Fellowship with Stand.earth, I’ve been involved in community organizing and outreach, building support for pension fund fossil fuel divestment in the Maine Public Employees Retirement System. I also started the Instagram and Bluesky accounts for the Climate Safe Pensions Network, creating posts and amplifying calls to action and campaign updates. I’ve enjoyed merging my passion for community organizing and advocacy with my interest in graphic design and social media strategy.” 

These four fellows are located across the U.S. so an important aspect of the fellowship has included gathering the fellows virtually in a cohort Zoom space. Through this, the fellows have been able to meet each other, build community, discuss how the campaigns they’re each working on can connect and support each other, and share their experiences as young people in the climate finance movement. Cohort meetings also incorporate trainings on topics the fellows have identified as essential in developing their careers and allow fellows to meet with staff at Stand.earth to learn more about the different paths for building careers in climate advocacy and NGO management.  

And the best part? We are just getting started. There are countless opportunities to expand this program and focus on targets beyond pension funds.

Interested in learning more or collaborating with Stand.earth’s Climate Finance Fellowship program? Reach out to amy@stand.earth to connect more about this.