Loss and Damage Youth Academy 2026: Apply Now
Apply for the Loss and Damage Youth Academy 2026. Eight free virtual sessions on UNFCCC negotiations, climate finance, and youth advocacy. Starts 14 August.
OPPORTUNITIESTRAINING & WORKSHOP
Loss and Damage Youth Academy 2026: Eight Sessions on Climate Justice, UNFCCC Negotiations, and Youth Advocacy
Applications are open now. Notifications go out in early August; the window is short.
The Loss and Damage Youth Coalition (LDYC) has launched applications for the inaugural cohort of the Loss and Damage Youth Academy; a free, youth-led virtual capacity-building programme running across eight weekly sessions from 14 August to 2 October 2026. If you're a young person trying to make sense of Loss and Damage under the UNFCCC, or you want to engage more effectively in global climate negotiations, this is one of the most substantive free programmes currently open.
Loss and Damage is no longer a peripheral agenda item. Since the establishment of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage at COP28 in Dubai, it has become one of the most contested and consequential issues in international climate finance and governance. Young people; particularly those from climate-vulnerable regions; have the most at stake in how these negotiations unfold. This Academy exists to make sure they have the knowledge and tools to shape them.
About the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition
The Loss and Damage Youth Coalition (LDYC) is a youth-led movement advocating for meaningful action on Loss and Damage within UNFCCC processes and beyond. It operates at the intersection of climate justice, community resilience, and multilateral advocacy; occupying space at COP negotiations, intersessional meetings, and global civil society platforms. Its constituency is explicitly global and intentionally inclusive of youth from frontline and climate-vulnerable communities who are underrepresented in international climate spaces.
The Academy is LDYC's flagship capacity-building initiative; designed by young people, for young people, with facilitators drawn from the coalition's own network of practitioners and advocates.
What the Programme Covers
Eight sessions. Eight weeks. Each session runs weekly on Zoom and tackles a distinct dimension of Loss and Damage; from foundational concepts through to negotiation mechanics, climate finance architecture, psychological impacts, and youth advocacy strategy.
The curriculum is sequenced deliberately. You can't engage meaningfully in Loss and Damage financing debates without understanding how the issue landed in the UNFCCC in the first place. You can't advocate effectively without understanding what the negotiating blocs want and why. The Academy builds that foundation before moving into applied skills.
Session 1: Introduction to Loss and Damage
14 August 2026
Foundational concepts, historical context, and why Loss and Damage is distinct from adaptation and mitigation. This session establishes the common framework the rest of the Academy builds on.
Session 2: Loss and Damage in UNFCCC Conversations — Part I
21 August 2026
How Loss and Damage entered the multilateral climate system, the key milestones from the Warsaw International Mechanism through to COP27's Sharm el-Sheikh breakthrough, and the political dynamics that shaped those outcomes.
Session 3: Loss and Damage in UNFCCC Negotiations — Part II
28 August 2026
The mechanics of live negotiations; how positions are formed, how blocs operate, what "brackets" and "contact groups" mean in practice, and how civil society and youth observers can engage meaningfully within formal processes.
Session 4: Financing Loss and Damage
4 September 2026
The architecture of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage; how it was established, who governs it, how it will disburse, and what it still doesn't resolve. This is one of the most technically complex and politically contested areas in the entire Loss and Damage landscape.
Session 5: Psychological Resilience
11 September 2026
An often-overlooked dimension of Loss and Damage work. Climate grief, eco-anxiety, moral injury, and the psychological toll of sustained advocacy in spaces where progress is slow and the stakes are existential. This session treats the inner lives of climate advocates as a legitimate programme concern.
Session 6: Loss and Damage Mock Simulation
18 September 2026
Applied learning through a simulated negotiation; participants take on country and civil society roles, navigate competing interests, and experience the dynamics of multilateral climate diplomacy from the inside. This session is where the preceding five sessions get tested in practice.
Session 7: Community-Based Action on Loss and Damage
25 September 2026
Connecting global policy to local reality. How communities document and quantify non-economic losses; how grassroots organisations engage with national Loss and Damage processes; and what community-based advocacy looks like when the formal system is too slow.
Session 8: Youth Advocacy and Engagement
2 October 2026
How to advocate effectively within the UNFCCC system as a young person; observer access, constituency engagement, side events, statement-making, and building coalitions with other youth and civil society actors. This final session is the bridge from knowledge to action.
Who Should Apply
The Academy targets four primary groups:
LDYC members and coalition partners
Youth climate advocates working on climate justice, adaptation, or resilience
Members of youth-led organisations engaged in environmental or development work
Youth from regions with lower representation in global climate processes; particularly frontline and climate-vulnerable communities across the Global South
There are no stated age limits or geographic restrictions in the application materials. What the organisers are clearly looking for is engagement, motivation, and relevance; not credentials or prior negotiation experience. The introductory structure of Session 1 confirms that this is designed for people building their understanding of Loss and Damage, not just those already embedded in the UNFCCC system.
How to Apply
Applications are open now and undergo a review process. The organisers will notify successful applicants in early August 2026; which means the application window is likely closing within days.
Apply here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf2ZCG_kugFA4o6OHKK4vHtSeeH6asOuk63urMGp8QkIOoQVA/viewform
Contact for queries: lossanddamageyouthcoalition@gmail.com
Follow LDYC: Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook
Don't sit on this. With early August notifications and a 14 August start date, the review process will begin imminently.
Why This Matters Right Now
The Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage has money on the table and no clear consensus on how to spend it equitably, how to define eligible losses, or how to reach the most vulnerable communities. COP31 in Australia will be a critical moment for Loss and Damage governance; and the cohort that goes through this Academy in August and September 2026 will be better placed to engage in those negotiations than almost any other group of young people in the world.
Eight weekly sessions won't make you a veteran negotiator. They will give you the analytical framework, the institutional knowledge, and the peer network to show up in those spaces with something real to contribute. That's worth a Zoom call every Thursday for two months.
For more climate fellowships, training programmes, and youth advocacy opportunities across the humanitarian and development sector, stay with Community For Development.
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