Climate commitments depend on people who can put them into practice. Businesses need support to reduce emissions. Communities need solutions that strengthen resilience. New technologies need viable business models, customers and partners. As COP31 takes place in Antalya, Türkiye, from 9 to 20 November 2026, youth entrepreneurship deserves attention as a practical contribution to this work. Young entrepreneurs can connect knowledge with local needs, develop climate solutions and help existing organisations adopt more sustainable practices. For Junior Enterprises Global, the priority is to connect climate ambition with the skills, resources and responsibility that enable young people to deliver results. Four areas are particularly important: practical education, a just transition, support for viable climate projects and meaningful youth participation.
The green skills gap is a climate implementation challenge
LinkedIn’s Global Green Skills Report 2024 identifies a growing mismatch between demand for green talent and its availability. Between 2023 and 2024, demand increased by 11.6 per cent, while supply grew by 5.6 per cent. The youth dimension is particularly striking. In LinkedIn’s platform data, only one in twenty Gen Z workers had green skills. In a separate survey covering six countries, 61 per cent of Gen Z respondents wanted to work in a green job within five years, while 45 per cent identified lack of experience as a barrier. These findings reflect LinkedIn’s users and survey respondents, rather than a census of the global workforce. They nevertheless highlight a concrete challenge: interest in climate-related work needs accessible routes into practical experience. For climate policy, this matters because investment and technology require people capable of applying them. Skills development belongs within the implementation of climate commitments.
1. Connecting climate education with entrepreneurial experience
The Glasgow work programme on Action for Climate Empowerment recognises education, training and public participation as elements of climate action. The ILO’s A Just Transition With and For Youth similarly identifies skills development, mentorship and support for youth green entrepreneurship as priorities. Universities can help translate these priorities into experience. Alongside classroom learning, students need opportunities to work through actual business and community challenges: gathering information, evaluating options, managing resources and taking responsibility for delivery. Junior Enterprises provide an organisational setting for this approach. As student-run consultancies, they connect academic knowledge with projects for external clients. Depending on their expertise and access to appropriate supervision, student teams could research markets for low-carbon products, assess resource use or help organisations communicate climate information clearly. These assignments would combine learning with a defined client need. As explored in JE Global’s article on student-run enterprises as a global skills infrastructure, sustained project responsibility can connect education with economic participation. Climate action offers an important field in which to develop that connection.
2. Supporting entrepreneurship for a just transition
A just transition must consider how economic change affects people, enterprises and communities. The decision adopted at COP30 recognises the importance of youth participation, small enterprises, education, skills and decent work within this process. UNDP’s Climate Concern to Climate Action: The Role of Young Social Entrepreneurs examines young entrepreneurs’ contribution to addressing the climate emergency across Asia and the Pacific, alongside the support needed to expand their contribution. This perspective has practical implications for national climate programmes. Entrepreneurship support should connect with environmental priorities and local needs. A venture’s contribution might involve reducing waste, improving access to sustainable products or helping communities respond to climate risks. Existing enterprises also need support to change. Young entrepreneurs and student consulting teams could help SMEs explore alternative suppliers, understand customer demand or assess the commercial feasibility of more sustainable practices. Public programmes and partnerships should make these opportunities accessible, including to young people who lack financial resources or established professional networks.
3. Turning climate solutions into viable projects
An idea needs a route to implementation. That route can involve technical validation, market research, project preparation, finance and partnerships. The UNFCCC Technology Executive Committee addresses this directly in Energizing Entrepreneurs to Tackle Climate Change, recognising entrepreneurs’ role in developing technologies, business models and services for low-emission and climate-resilient development. The Belém Technology Implementation Programme, adopted at COP30, provides a further policy connection. Its elements include strengthening innovation systems, preparing fundable projects and fostering partnerships around developing countries’ climate technology priorities. For young entrepreneurs, support should therefore extend beyond competitions and initial visibility. Accessible funding, incubation, mentorship and connections with potential users can help promising ideas become implementable projects. Junior Enterprises could contribute at defined stages, including feasibility studies, stakeholder research and business model development. Such work should have clear expectations, suitable supervision and assessment of the proposed climate contribution.
4. Giving young people a role in climate implementation
Meaningful youth participation should extend across climate planning, delivery and review. UNDP’s Aiming Higher: Elevating Meaningful Youth Engagement for Climate Action provides guidance on participation throughout the cycle of Nationally Determined Contributions, the national climate commitments underpinning the Paris Agreement. Young entrepreneurs can contribute practical perspectives on barriers to implementation: access to expertise, the usability of funding programmes and the challenges of bringing solutions to customers. Governments should create sustained opportunities for this input and explain how it informs decisions. Youth organisations, in turn, should bring evidence from their activities and track what supported projects achieve. For student enterprise networks, that means documenting learning alongside environmental results, distinguishing projected benefits from measured outcomes and sharing lessons that others can apply.
From COP31 priorities to local climate action
Junior Enterprises Global’s contribution lies at the intersection of universities, entrepreneurial learning and business needs. Partnerships can connect these actors around projects that develop skills while addressing concrete climate challenges. At COP31, the case for supporting young entrepreneurs is a case for expanding implementation capacity. Practical education prepares people to act. Enterprise support helps solutions develop. Meaningful participation connects experience with better policy. Equipping young entrepreneurs with skills, resources and responsibility is an investment in the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
