Youth participation in global policy networks on climate change

Abstract

This study implements a mixed methods design based on social network analysis to analyse activities related to the participation of youth in international negotiations on climate change. We show that the participation of youth is, on the one hand, actively promoted by international organisations. On the other hand, youth form transnational social movements and explicitly oppose (inter)national organisations. Using social network analysis, we show that youth from both the Global North and the Global South can be identified as being central in these transnational networks, with those from the Global South focusing on bridging between different groups. Our findings further suggest that previous approaches to participation are limited in their ability to explain transnational forms of youth participation.