The movement brings 10 young people to ICLEI's newest governing body, two of whom will have special advisory status, and consolidates efforts to bring youth to the center of the climate agenda in the territories.

São Paulo, August 12, 2026 – ICLEI South America announces this Wednesday (12), World Youth Day, the official creation of its Youth Committee for ICLEI Brazil.

The new official governing body comprises ten members, two of whom will be appointed to the ICLEI Advisory Council with special advisory status. The decision was approved by the organization's Assembly, and the new members are scheduled to take office on August 19.

Coming from 9 cities spread across the North, Central-West, and Southeast regions of Brazil, the members of the Committee bring experience working directly with subnational governments and civil society organizations on topics such as biodiversity, gender, and youth engagement in environmental and climate issues.

Meet the members:

• Gaio Jorge de Paiva – Rio de Janeiro (RJ) – Creation Collective and Secretariat of Environment and Climate of Rio de Janeiro
• Graciane Simone Leite Barbosa de Alcântara – Vitória (ES) – State Secretariat for Management and Human Resources of Espírito Santo
• Ana Heloísa Oliveira Alves – Santarém (PA) – Engajamundo and Feminist Action for Climate Justice/UN Women
• Andressa Maria dos Santos Sousa – São José dos Campos (SP) – FonteViva – Reborn with Water
• Odenilze Ramos – Manaus (AM) – Instituto Arumã
• Anderson Figueiredo dos Santos – Oriximiná (PA) – People's Alliance for Climate
• Cayo Henrique Ferreira de Alcântara – Goiânia (GO) – Life in the Cerrado (Avinc)
• Henrique Portanova Barbosa – São Paulo (SP) – Master's student in Environmental Management at the Yale School of the Environment
• Maria Cecília Costa Braga da Silva – Manaus (AM) – Sociocultural Source
• Clariana Monteiro da Silva Peixoto – São Paulo (SP) – Global Youth Network for Biodiversity (GYBN) Brazil

The Executive Secretary of ICLEI South America, Rodrigo Perpétuo, celebrates the movement and welcomes the ten members of the Committee: “The creation of the Youth Committee consolidates itself as a new level for ICLEI: that of transforming youth participation into a permanent governance structure, with consultative power and the opportunity to directly support us in building climate policies for subnational governments in South America.”.

According to Armelle Cibaka, director of ICLEI Brazil, the movement "expresses a commitment built over the years: not only to listen to young people, but to ensure that they actually occupy spaces in organizations that work in the territories for local sustainability, such as ICLEI," she says.

ICLEI South America and Youth

The new Committee is the result of a journey that ICLEI South America has been building for years, gradually expanding and working towards spaces for youth participation in its institutional activities and with its associated governments.

In 2024, during the ICLEI World Congress held in São Paulo, the Youth Advisory Council was created, a project aimed at exchanging experiences, bringing young people closer together, and promoting ideas and solutions from this group.

At the event, the Youth Manifesto was launched, a document that calls on local and regional governments to fulfill their responsibilities for sustainable, low-emission, and climate-resilient development, in line with the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement.

Furthermore, ICLEI South America's programs with its members were also highlighted in the context of developing young leaders.

Among the initiatives, for example, is the Sustainable Schools Certification Program, which, in conjunction with the Municipality of Canoas (RS), certified eight schools with the "Canary of the Earth" seal in 2023. The program recognizes good practices and innovative sustainability initiatives at four levels, achieved as schools advance in the implementation of sustainable actions.

In 2025, the municipality of Belém (PA) held 20 Plant-for-the-Planet Academies, with the direct participation of one thousand children from the municipal public school system. Promoted with the support of the Belém City Hall, ICLEI, the Climate Emergency Collaboration Group (CECG), and the Plant-for-the-Planet Foundation, the Academies are playful learning spaces about the causes and impacts of climate change, in which children develop local projects and are recognized as Climate Justice Ambassadors.

More recently, in 2026, ICLEI concluded its first cycle of the Youth Climate Task Force program, a call for the collective and voluntary mobilization of young people in favor of climate justice, implemented within the framework of the Town Halls and ICLEI Brazil Meetings in 2025. At the conclusion of the Task Force, in May of this year, 10 initiatives from Campinas (SP), Curitiba (PR), Brejo da Madre de Deus (PE) and Teresina (PI) had been awarded a cycle of mentoring with the ICLEI team and with exclusive feedback coming directly from the municipalities that supported the program's call.

In addition to these initiatives, there is the ICLEI Volunteer Program, which was implemented in 2017 and attracts young people from all over Brazil to develop projects aligned with sustainability themes and to actively contribute to local and global initiatives for learning and socio-environmental impact.