The Submissions Portal IS CLOSED!

FIND THE WINNERS ➜HERE

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THE RULES

  1. The Youth Climate Activism Award is open to students under 20 years of age in Canada who demonstrate impactful, unique and creative actions as agents in mitigating climate change.

  2. Submissions must take the form of UP TO a five minute film or a 500 word essay (with or without photos), that shares the applicant’s passion and commitment to their climate activism.

  3. We require you to answer 3 Questions (see below) during the submission form process so best to have those completed ahead of time.

  4. You WILL NEED a Google (gmail) account and provide us with the link to your essay in a Google Doc (you will need to set it to public aka β€˜anyone with the link can view’) OR have your link to your public YouTube video within a Google Doc. We cannot accept your submission otherwise.

  5. Applicants under 18 will need their parent or guardian with them while they fill out the submissions form as there is a permissions section they need to agree to for a valid entry. We ask this because we want to freely share applicants’ stories, images and video on social media, print media and online journalistic outlets.

  6. All work submitted must be completed by the applicants themselves and cannot be AI-generated.

We now accept French Submissions
(written essays or videos).

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3 QUESTIONS

We would like to learn more about you and your experience, goals, inspirations and aspirations around your climate work.

You will also find these questions in the application form… but we thought you may want to take some time to think about them ahead of time.

PLEASE NOTE: We have updated these questions in 2025.

  1. What future goals do you have around your environmental and climate work, and do you have any future projects in mind? (Max 200 words)

  2. If you could share one message of hope for your community, what would it be? Briefly explain why you would choose this message. (Max 150 words)

  3. Who or what inspires you to work on climate change? Why? (Max 200 words)

HOW TO ENTER

UP TO 25 prizes to be won!

There are 2 ways you can enter (1 entry per person):

➜ Submit UP TO a five minute video.

➜ Submit a 500 word essay (with our without photos).

➜ Youth aged 14 and under $500.

➜ Youth aged 15-19 $1000.

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What you can win:

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2024 YCAA Winners

MEET THE JUDGES

The Youth Climate Cabinet

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A young woman with long black hair, wearing a gray shirt, standing in front of a background featuring pink blossoming flowers and green leaves.

KASEY CHEN

PARKER LITTLE

A young man with short brown hair and light skin standing outdoors near green trees and water.
A young woman with glasses and dark hair, standing outdoors in front of a bush with orange flowers.

FINN BROWN

AMY ZHANG

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ELAINE XIAO

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