Educommunication: giving young people a voice in times of climate crisis

I've always believed that communication isn't just a tool for transmitting information, but also an educational process capable of transforming realities. It was with this perspective that, between 2012 and 2016, I coordinated youth coverage of the UN Climate Change Conferences (COPs) with Educommunication Turnaround. Every year we took delegations of young people from different countries to act as communicators, producing content that explained, in accessible language, what was at stake in international negotiations.

The experience was intense: before the trip, the young people underwent training to understand how the COPs work and the main topics under discussion. During the event, we held daily editorial meetings, monitored the production of texts, videos, and interviews, and offered ongoing mentoring. More than teaching journalistic techniques, the goal was to create a space for youth-to-youth dialogue, demonstrating that climate change was not a distant issue, restricted to politicians and scientists, but something that directly impacted their lives and communities.

Years later, in 2025, I experienced the power of educommunication again in another, very different context: a workshop with teenagers in Ökodorf Sieben Linden Sommercamp, in Germany. There, I worked with young people aged 11 to 13 on the topic of water. For three and a half hours, we explored critical reflections on consumption and water justice, always connecting the learning to a creative production: educommunicative collages that expressed the adolescents' perceptions and ideas. In the end, the activity demonstrated that communication, when used in a participatory way, can open pathways for young people to express their worldviews and recognize themselves as part of the solution.

These experiences, though distinct, reinforced my conviction that education and communication go hand in hand. Educommunication allows young people to move beyond being passive recipients of information and become protagonists, producers of knowledge, and drivers of change. In times of climate crisis, where fake news, denialist rhetoric, and feelings of powerlessness are so prevalent, giving young people a voice is also an act of climate justice.

Educommunication isn't just a methodology. It's an invitation to listen, engage in dialogue, and recognize that young people have much to teach us about the future.