The Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN)

What is IYCN? 

The Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) is a coalition uniting Indian youth and Indian youth oriented organisations who are concerned about climate change. We, as the future leaders of the country can generate awareness and establish consensus on what role India should play in the global debate, and how it should address domestic issues of climate justice and adaptation. It is a monumental effort but one with immense potential. IYCN works on three levels:

a) As a network of individuals allowing people to come together and interact at a grassroots level, form friendships and support each other.

b) As a coalition of member and supporter groups who come under the umbrella group of IYCN, however maintain their autonomy, yet leverage off a national network of young people passionate about the environment and development.

c) As a centralised organisation that runs its own programs and projects, accepts sponsorship and donations and forms partnerships and runs media campaigns.

The Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) was founded in March 2008. Since its inception the network has seen massive growth, starting from 3 people and today its reach spanning out hundreds and thousands of Indians all over the world. In its short period of existence, it has generated a lot excitement from youth and adults at the grassroots and is now present in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujurat, Haryana, Rajasthan, Goa, Jammu & Kashmir, Delhi, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh and are quickly moving into other regions of India. 

Why Indian needs a youth climate movement? 

Dawn broke on the Bali beaches on December 1st, 2007 and the global negotiations on the fate of the post Kyoto framework started. Amidst the approximately 10,000 delegates convening from around the world a strong contingent of a growing youth movement were also making their voices heard. The significance of the conference being not only on an island but also in Asia was apparent: the future of the world lies in the hands of the one out every three citizens on the planet that resides in the rapidly industrializing nations of the East: India and China. 

For the first time youth voices from Asia had been given a chance to come together and to begin to think about a common future in which their fates were so closely interwoven. Lacking from this discussion were youth from India. Would the approximately 1 billion people be missing from this debate forever? With 48% of the global population being youth and nearly 70 crore (700 million) people in India under the age of 35, it becomes obvious whose future is at stake. 

Born with the vision that there is an urgent need to get youth and young professionals to begin to start contemplating the implications of climate change for India and the world, the Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) started connecting people across the nation. The IYCN seeks to empower the next generation for climate leaders and mobilize them into collective action to show the world that India is taking action and that the solutions exist and they are here to be utilized and replicated today. 

Many years ago at the stroke of the midnight hour on August 15th, 1947, India was able to realize her “tryst” with destiny and to make a “pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.” Today as she forges a new dawn of the “Asian Age,” she grapples with issues of providing services to approximately 400 million of her rural citizens while islands of prosperity mushroom in her urban centers. Buoyed by her new found wealth and the idea of an India that can be, has brought her to the crossroads of determining not only her own developmental future but the ecological future of the entire planet. 

But India is a nation born of the idea of decentralization and self-reliance. A nation which has the respect for nature embedded in her psyche. Her people sparked a movement of non-violence which signaled the end of an era of injustice in many corners of the world. Today, the Indian Youth Climate Network seeks to create a new movement: one that empowers people to be the change. One that brings them together to generate solutions and to support initiatives that are helping the country shape her destiny every day. As we are bound globally in the climate impacts, we are bound together to find the climate solutions and a nation of over one billion, India has more than a billion solutions to address the climate challenge.