Report: Growing and Diversifying Youth Climate Activism

July 30, 2022

A joint project of the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) and Action for the Climate Emergency (ACE)

In 2022, CIRCLE and ACE partnered to examine how climate-focused organizations can reach a wider diversity of young people, both to strengthen their efforts and to deepen youth civic and political engagement.

This brief presents findings from a survey of 3,451 young people, ages 14-25, who had recently joined ACE through ad-based recruitment or were ACE members who had been inactive for the past 12 months. 76% of participants are from eight states where ACE is largely focused: FL, TX, NC, OH, PA, AZ, WI, and NV – with more than a third from Florida and Texas.

Based on our findings climate organizations should consider:

Focusing more recruitment dollars on demographic groups most likely to take action
Ensuring that asks match the necessary skills possessed by target audiences
Placing focus on young people under 18 who still play a critical role in current and future elections

Findings:

There are opportunities to increase engagement for some youth:

Age: The youngest respondents (ages 14-19) were more likely than their slightly older peers (ages 20-24) to sign petitions, plan events, and use social media to inform and engage.
Gender: Non-binary youth and women were more likely than men to sign petitions, have conversations, and use social media. Non-binary youth were also more likely than other youth to contact an elected official.
Race/Ethnicity: Black youth and other youth members of communities of color were less likely than white youth to sign petitions, have conversations with family and peers, and use social media to engage.
Political Ideology & Party Affiliation: Liberals were most likely to sign petitions, have conversations, contact elected officials, and use social media compared to conservatives, moderate youth, and youth who don’t know their political ideology. However, conservative youth and youth in the middle were more likely to plan events than liberals.
Geography: Respondents living in rural areas were less likely to have conversations.

Various skills are involved when youth take action:

We explored what abilities and strengths help young people take climate action, in order to imagine how organizations can instill those skills and extend those support systems to more diverse young people. We asked survey respondents to consider the different climate actions listed above and identify the skills needed to take each action. The skills included:

Readiness: Ability to present and discuss information, and to inspire others to take action
Efficacy: Having the knowledge, skills, and availability to do the action
Motivation: Having the reasons and the support to do the action

Our analysis found that the most common actions identified (signing a petition or having a conversation) involved readiness and either efficacy or motivation, while higher-effort actions (participating in or planning events) required efficacy and motivation but not readiness. Using social media was related to all three skills.

There were no differences in skills by race. However, men, conservatives, those who don’t know their political ideology, Republicans, and those with no party affiliation had lower motivation and readiness.

Climate activism has strong connections to youth voting in the 2022 election:

The positive relationship between climate activism and likelihood to vote also suggests opportunities to grow voters, even among youth who have not yet turned 18. Young people who have not reached voting age can talk to their friends and family about political issues, post online about elections, and support their older peers with registration. For campaigns and organizations, this may mean there is a segment of the future electorate eager to pre-register to vote, volunteer for campaigns, and engage their peers within issue organizing spaces.

Read the full report here.