Our Approach
As the final generation that can solve climate change, FES empowers youth to create a more inclusive, fair, prosperous, and sustainable future. FES is youth-led, and youth-serving and fully believes that youth are the key to cultivating political will, shifting societal attitudes, and changing dominant culture that will enable so-called Canada to deploy meaningful and fair climate solutions.
FES is a registered charity (801430307 RR0001) and is an accredited organization by the United Nations and has special consultative status with the:
Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC)
United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP)
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification(UNCCCD)
United Nation Framework and Covention on Climate Change(UNFCCC)
Our Mission
Our mission is to empower youth, change lifestyles, and amplify powerful youth projects to create a sustainable future. We provide training, resources, and other support to see youth-led projects and leaders grow and be sustained across the country.
Our Vision
We envision a future where young people are empowered and supported in their active involvement building solutions for a climate resilient future.
Our Intended Impact
Our intended impact is to see that by 2030, the Canadian climate movement will be successfully implementing mitigation and adaptation strategies needed for a climate-resilient and fair Canada, through the influence and action of youth leaders.
Our Grounding Truths
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![Two youth sitting on the grass, looking at a flower]()
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Climate change will have the greatest impact on the future of young people, and with the most at stake and least ties to the status quo, youth have the most agency and motivation to create solutions that match the speed and scale of the climate crisis.
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![3 youth posing with sky behind them.]()
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Youth organizing is impactful and innovative, especially in fostering the political will, culture shift, and societal change needed to enable the deployment of meaningful climate solutions.
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![Line of youth standing beside each other, looking ahead into the distance.]()
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The nature of youth organizing is responsive, trust-based, and emergent and therefore the supports that enable youth action should complement the ways in which youth organize.
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![Two youth holding books and smiling.]()
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Youth voices are essential to include and have represented in climate decision-making spaces, and thus youth must be meaningfully consulted as equal partners.
Our Principles
We are youth-led, youth-serving - always.
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We believe that youth are the best agents of change and that’s why we are investing in them. Youth are powerful, passionate, and competent, and the adult-centric world continuously underestimates and ignores the demands of youth. We are passionate about ensuring that youth are empowered and supported to take action and carry these experiences with them into their personal and professional lives.
We are working towards an equitable and accessible future.
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We seek to support innovative work that takes bold climate action and supports communities most deeply affected by the climate crisis. To do so, we are committed to making our processes as equitable and accessible as possible through clarity and transparency, demystifying climate jargon and language, providing consistent and clear communication, and ensuring we accommodate folks that may not be able-bodied, speak other languages than English, and experience barriers to climate work. We will review our strategy regularly to ensure that it continues to meet the needs of the community we serve.
We are in a climate crisis, and we act like it.
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We seek to create, nurture, and maintain long-term supportive relationships and we are committed to collaborating with existing community partners and helping them amplify their impact.
We are committed to building relationships of trust and mutual respect.
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We are at a nexus point where the actions that we take now greatly impact our ability to make it under the 1.5 degree mark. Climate change may not be the most important issue in every context, but it certainly is the most urgent, as failure to address the climate crisis heavily impacts our ability to address other inequalities and injustices.
We strengthen the movement through responsibility and reciprocity.
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We encourage work that brings underrepresented communities, particularly Indigenous communities, to the forefront of the climate movement and defend communities whose health and livelihoods are threatened by environmental exploitation. We are committed to aligning ourselves with the Calls to Action outlined by the Truth & Reconciliation Commission.
Our Strategy
To operationalize the strategy, FES has developed three key areas to build until 2030.
Priority 1: Finance
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To enable youth initiatives to access an additional $80M by 2030, outside of FES giving.
Priority 2: Engage
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To enable the development of an ecosystem of co-conspirators and collaborators across climate, To enable exposure of climate action to the general public and moveable middle pressuring traditional and new media to cover climate action from 1.2% to 3.5% to re-balance narratives around climate change.
Priority 3: Sustain
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To enable the sustainability of youth and organizations, so that (youth) leaders continue to engage in climate-related work after 30.
Getting to 2030
Our Strategic Plan
Governance & Transparency
FES uses several strategies to ensure that adequate governance mechanisms are put in place. This includes having several committees on FES’ Board, utilizing committees for our granting streams and projects, and performing an annual audit.
Equity & Diversity
FES aspires to cultivate a youth climate movement that is well-sustained, which means honouring that the strength of the youth-led climate movement comes from its diversity of perspectives and identities.
