CU Boulder to co-host Right Here, Right Now Global Youth Climate Summit
On Dec. 10, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN Human Rights); Saïd Business School, University of Oxford (Oxford Saïd); and the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance (RHRN) announced a multi-year plan to host the Right Here, Right Now Global Youth Climate Summit annually on UN World Environment Day, June 5.
The annual summit will be jointly hosted by Oxford Saïd and UN Human Rights, with co-hosting support from leading universities worldwide, including CU Boulder. The summit will convene young leaders, scholars, policymakers, educators and innovators to advance human rights-based climate solutions.
Panelist Julieta Martinez addresses the audience during a youth panel at the 2022 Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit hosted by CU Boulder. Photo by Casey Cass/CU Boulder.
CU Boulder’s support of the summit will be led by the Buckley Center for Sustainability Education (BCSE), which drives sustainability curriculum and experiential learning; the Center for African and African American Studies (the CAAAS—or “the cause”), which elevates equity and justice in global climate discourse; and the Conference on World Affairs (CWA), which offers a shared CU Boulder and community-based event platform for global dialogue and thought leadership.
“Young people are not just the leaders of tomorrow, they are the drivers of positive climate solutions today,” said Max Boykoff, faculty executive director of the Buckley Center for Sustainability Education. “The Right Here, Right Now Global Youth Climate Summit elevates youth voices at a moment when their leadership is absolutely essential to advancing collective climate initiatives that protect the planet and benefit generations to come.”
The summit will serve as a global touchpoint for collaboration and capacity-building related to human rights-based climate action across campuses and communities worldwide.
“The climate crisis is not only an environmental issue, it is a human rights issue that touches every dimension of social life,” said Reiland Rabaka, professor of African, African American, and Caribbean studies in the Department of Ethnic Studies and the founder and director of the CAAAS at CU Boulder. “This summit centers the voices and leadership of young people who are already shaping new, more just futures, especially in frontline and historically marginalized communities.”
The theme for the 2026 Right Here, Right Now Global Youth Climate Summit focuses on ensuring climate technologies for mitigation and adaptation are aligned with human rights obligations. It also emphasizes developing the tools needed to support a just transition to sustainable economies and societies that uphold human rights. The summit will explore the human rights risks and opportunities of current and emerging technologies, such as renewable energy systems, resilient infrastructure, data and early-warning tools and artificial intelligence, in the context of climate action and identify strategies to ensure these risks are mitigated and human rights are protected.
The summit will be hybrid, hosted physically at Oxford Saïd and livestreamed globally, enabling broad participation while limiting travel and associated environmental impacts. Young people from 12 regions will contribute through dialogues, case studies and presentations on the intersection of climate change, human rights and climate technology, highlighting scalable solutions that strengthen resilience and protect communities on the frontlines.
“CU Boulder’s sustainability vision recognizes that climate change is a global challenge, and we need to act from the campus to the global level to address this challenge,” said Andrew Mayock, vice chancellor for sustainability at CU Boulder. “By serving as a co-host of the Right Here, Right Now Global Youth Climate Summit, we’re helping to elevate international dialogue, shared learning and collaborative problem-solving at a truly global scale.”
In December 2022, the inaugural Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit was held at CU Boulder. The summit addressed the interconnectedness of human rights and climate change, bringing together some of the world’s foremost human rights, scientific, political, educational, cultural and industry leaders to outline and commit to specific actions addressing the harmful effects of climate change on human rights. In June 2025, CU Boulder supported the University of Oxford and United Nations Human Rights hosted during a four-day global summit on climate change and human rights, alongside the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance.