As the world inches closer to COP30 in Belém, a new chapter of inclusive, locally-rooted climate governance is unfolding through ICLEI’s Town Hall COP Initiative. Born out of the Local Stocktake pilots in 2023, held in the lead-up to COP28, these events are redefining what multilevel climate action looks like.

The Town Hall COP Initiative invites local governments and communities to bring the global climate movement home by hosting a local climate summit. These gatherings serve to inform, debate, and align local action with national climate plans (NDCs). 

As a community-centered process, it calls for the inclusion of a diverse range of voices—from local government representatives and civil society to the private sector, youth, and other actors who form the backbone of their communities.

As Town Hall COPs scale up in 2025, youth leadership is making a visible impact. Nearly one-third of current Town Hall COP applications are youth-led, with many also exploring synergies with Local Conferences of Youth (LCOYs) — in-country, youth-led events designed to build capacity and drive engagement. Outcomes from LCOYs feed into the Global Youth Statement, which YOUNGO consolidates and submits to the UNFCCC.

The call is clear: Effective climate action must be inclusive, participatory, and multilevel. The momentum behind Town Hall COPs is not only building locally, it’s transforming how global climate policy is shaped from the ground up.

Local stocktakes: Advancing youth involvement

In 2023, 26 cities and regions across 18 countries and six continents organized local stocktakes, an initiative supported by ICLEI in its capacity as the focal point of the Local Government and Municipal Authority (LGMA) Constituency to the UNFCCC. A key feature of these events was the substantial involvement of youth, made possible through a strategic partnership with YOUNGO, the official youth and children’s constituency of the UNFCCC.

Among them, three local stocktakes—in Accra (Ghana), Kampala (Uganda), and Nairobi (Kenya)—were fully youth-led. These events set a new benchmark for inclusive climate participation. Far from being symbolic gestures, they provided platforms for young people to directly influence local government priorities and policy dialogues.

These stocktakes didn’t just echo youth voices; they amplified them, calling for more inclusive planning processes that prioritize climate-vulnerable and marginalized groups. Youth also advocated for adaptive governance structures that allow for swift policy adjustments and strong accountability mechanisms.

The successes of these youth-led stocktakes were further spotlighted during side events at COP28 on Youth Day and featured in the COP28 Global Youth Statement.

Nairobi’s local stocktake becomes an academic contribution

The impact of these climate dialogues extended beyond the events themselves. The Nairobi local stocktake led to the publication of an academic paper published in March 2025 in the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy.

Titled “Strengthening Local Climate Governance: Insights From Nairobi’s Subnational Government Stocktake,” the study was co-authored by Karishma Asarpota (ICLEI World Secretariat), Juliet Oluoch (Ustawi Analytica), Emily Bolo (The University of Nairobi), and Tom Randa (UNICEF). It positions Nairobi’s local stocktake as a scalable model for climate governance, demonstrating how grassroots participation can inform top-down policies, offering concrete recommendations to improve multilevel climate governance:

• Put local priorities into national plans: Local voices must be reflected in national and global climate strategies.
• Align all levels of government: National, regional, and local actors must coordinate effectively to tailor climate action to local realities.
• Share knowledge and best practices: Cities and regions can support better global decision-making by learning from one another.
• Track progress and ensure accountability: Strong monitoring tools promote transparency and trust.
• Fund local action and innovation: Climate finance should flow to local governments, especially in vulnerable areas, and support youth-led solutions, innovation, and data access.

While the paper highlights the critical role of local governments, it also identifies a persistent mismatch between global policy frameworks and local implementation. This reinforces the need for better integration and coordination across governance levels.

In essence, Nairobi’s case shows how local action, when well-documented and analyzed, becomes a resource for systemic change.

Brazil’s youth in action: The Campinas Town Hall COP

Brazil offers a compelling example of how this model can be applied. On 11–13 June 2025, the City of Campinas demonstrated how youth engagement can be integrated throughout a Town Hall COP.

Framed within the 2nd ICLEI Southeast Regional Meeting, ICLEI South America and the City of Campinas launched “Mutirão pelo Clima,” a public call for youth-led proposals focused on adaptation and resilience. Inspired by the second letter from the COP30 Presidency, the initiative called on young people, collectives, associations, and educational institutions to present actions that respond to climate impacts on a local scale. These are examples of “self-determined contributions”—local, voluntary actions that complement NDCs by linking global ambition to territorial realities,  serving as bottom-up climate action.

At the event, two prominent youth leaders participated in the Climate Justice Panel: Joana Gabriela, ICLEI Youth Council representative, who is a part of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN), Engajamundo, Rede Brasileira de Biodiversidade e Clima (RBBC), Global Shapers and founder of the project Women Who Feed Cities (Mulheres que Alimentam Cidades); and Amanda Costa, founder and executive director of Perifa Sustentável.

Additionally, youth input contributed to the Campinas Statement, the event’s official outcome document. It responds to the call of the Climate Task Force, launched by the COP30 Presidency, and brings the gaze of local territories to the major challenges of the climate and biodiversity agenda. It represents the commitment of local governments in the Southeast region to climate action, rooted in their territories, connected to global processes, and guided by justice, inclusion, and cooperation among different levels of government.

This participatory approach is being replicated across Brazil. ICLEI South America is working with youth councils, organizations like Engajamundo and GYBN, and universities to ensure local youth participation in every Town Hall COP in Brazil, including at least two youth panelists and a team of trained volunteers to support logistics and document the discussions.

Youth at the Daring Cities Bonn Dialogues

Daring Cities supports the Town Hall COP Initiative and is committed to create and sustain a cycle that connects local, national, and global climate action, driving real change from the ground up. On 18 June, a special deep dive session at the Daring Cities 2025 Bonn Dialogues will focus on the Town Hall COP, where  youth perspectives will be at the forefront.

James Magesa, youth leader from LCOY Tanzania, will speak about how youth-led climate action can inform national plans and advance multilevel cooperation. His participation underscores how Town Hall COPs are serving as inclusive spaces to elevate youth voices on the global stage.