GSCRAN

Our Power, Our Planet: SCAP 2026 Regional Dialogue Advances Youth-Led Climate Action Across Schools and Communities

25 April 2026 | Virtual Regional Dialogue

The Regional Dialogue: Schools Climate Action Project (SCAP) 2026, organized under the theme “Our Power, Our Planet,” brought together students, educators, youth leaders, schools, researchers, and organizations in a regional exchange focused on transforming climate education into meaningful, locally grounded action. The virtual dialogue was held on 25 April 2026 under the Global Student Climate Research and Action Network (GSCRAN).

At the heart of the dialogue was a clear message: climate education becomes more powerful when young people are given opportunities not only to understand environmental problems, but also to investigate them, design solutions, gather evidence, collaborate with communities, and turn ideas into action. The proceedings identify this movement—from awareness to evidence-based inquiry, prototyping, partnership, and locally grounded action—as one of the central conclusions of SCAP 2026.

A Regional Platform for Climate Education and Action

The conference registration record documented 82 form responses representing 13 countries, alongside 30 special invitations, demonstrating the regional and international reach of the initiative. Of the 82 registration responses, 64.6% were individual participants, including researchers, scientists, students, and teachers; 25.6% represented schools; and 9.8% represented organizations.
Participants came from the Philippines, India, Türkiye, Pakistan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, France, Iraq, Qatar, Romania, Sierra Leone, and the United States, while presenters from New Zealand also participated by invitation.

Registration data also revealed strong demand for practical climate learning. 75.6% of respondents indicated interest in educating for climate action, while 73.2% selected innovating for climate solutions. Climate education partnerships, climate innovation challenges, and climate justice initiatives likewise received substantial interest.

Global Expertise Meets Youth-Led Solutions

The programme opened with remarks from Joshua Vidal, Founder of GSCRAN, followed by a message from Shahnaaz Ojha, Director of GSCRAN. Keynote addresses were delivered by Dr. Emma Porio, Professor at Ateneo de Manila University and Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; Subhajit Mukherjee, recipient of the Mother Teresa Memorial Award; and Neela Majumdar, Director of Education and Outreach for EARTHDAY.ORG Asia.

Dr. Porio emphasized the continuing need to strengthen climate change and disaster-risk education, drawing attention to climate anxiety among young people, curriculum and instructional-resource gaps, challenges facing teachers, and the importance of youth-centred initiatives that connect classroom learning with community climate action.

Majumdar challenged young people to move beyond environmental awareness toward active participation through their everyday decisions, school and community initiatives, peer engagement, advocacy, and locally appropriate solutions. Her message positioned students not simply as recipients of climate education, but as leaders, collaborators, and agents of environmental change.

Mukherjee, meanwhile, shared climate practices and innovations demonstrating the role of teamwork, community participation, creative problem-solving, and practical implementation in transforming local ideas into initiatives that can potentially be adapted by other schools and communities.

From School Gardens to Climate Innovation

One of the strongest features of SCAP 2026 was the diversity of solutions presented by participating schools and young people.

School-based initiatives demonstrated how campuses themselves can become laboratories for sustainability. Projects included terrace gardens, composting, vermicomposting, recycling, kitchen gardening, renewable-energy practices, rainwater harvesting, resource conservation, and student-led environmental monitoring.

At Adani Vidya Mandir Ahmedabad, for example, a student-led sustainability initiative reported diverting approximately 110 kilograms of organic waste per month, while vermicompost production increased from 50 kilograms to 110 kilograms within six months. The project demonstrated how routine school waste streams can simultaneously become environmental interventions and STEM learning opportunities.

Students also presented innovative responses to environmental challenges. Indonesian students Freya Mirellyn Goenawan and Vezia Surijan explored the potential of Phragmites australis or common reed as an alternative to single-use plastic straws, while Kavya Govind Agrawal presented AquaShield, a smart water-cleaning concept combining a bubble barrier with magnetic separation for removing floating debris and impurities from small water bodies.

Other contributions expanded climate action into policy and finance. Zinedine Reza of Indonesia proposed a social forestry insurance model combining climate-risk protection with conservation incentives, objective climate triggers, and blended green finance—showing that student and youth climate thinking can extend beyond traditional environmental activities into institutional and economic innovation.

Climate Action Beyond the Classroom

Community-based projects showed another important dimension of the dialogue.

Students from Pearls Garden High School in Nigeria investigated food waste and hunger in the Ejigbo community using interviews and surveys before translating their findings into public communication and awareness activities. Their project demonstrated a design-thinking pathway from identifying a community problem to developing and communicating practical responses.

Meanwhile, the Climate Agriculture Youth Equity Network Sierra Leone connected youth leadership with climate-smart agriculture, organic fertilizer development, policy advocacy, farmer collaboration, and community resilience.

International collaboration was also strongly represented through The Ocean That Connects Us (TOTCUS), a youth-led citizen-science network connecting 25 schools through more than 60 climate-related projects. Originating as a Chile–New Zealand collaboration, the network enables young people to investigate environmental challenges through scientific, social, and Indigenous research perspectives while sharing knowledge across countries.

Five Major Outcomes of SCAP 2026

Across the presentations, keynote sessions, moderated discussions, and open forum, five major principles emerged:

1. Schools can function as living laboratories where gardens, waste systems, water, energy use, and infrastructure become opportunities for inquiry and action.
2. Youth agency becomes stronger when supported by evidence, including data collection, monitoring, prototyping, design thinking, and model development.
3. Local solutions can have regional relevance when ideas are designed for adaptation, exchange, and replication.
4. Climate action is inherently interdisciplinary, connecting science with entrepreneurship, policy, finance, citizenship, communication, and international collaboration.
5. Partnerships enable climate initiatives to grow, connecting schools with communities, researchers, organizations, media, and other educational institutions.

The accepted presentations were organized into four thematic clusters—Global Youth Climate Citizenship and Collaboration; Whole-School Sustainability and Green Campus Practices; Innovation, Policy, and Environmental Design; and Community Resilience, Agriculture, and Food Security—with each cluster followed by synthesis and discussion.

From Climate Awareness to Climate Action

SCAP 2026 demonstrated that some of the most meaningful climate solutions do not begin with large-scale technologies or distant policy commitments. They can begin with a school garden, a waste audit, a community survey, a prototype, a student research question, or collaboration between classrooms thousands of kilometres apart.

What makes these initiatives significant is the process through which students become researchers, designers, communicators, collaborators, and problem-solvers.

The proceedings ultimately reinforce a simple but important lesson: the strongest school climate initiatives connect learning with observable action, evidence, student agency, and partnerships capable of sustaining the work beyond a single activity.

Through “Our Power, Our Planet,” SCAP 2026 provided a regional platform for that transition—moving climate education from something students learn about to something young people actively investigate, shape, and lead.

Download the proceedings below: