Australian Youth Climate Coalition

Young people and future generations will live longest with the consequences of decisions made today, despite having done the least to cause the climate crisis and being shut out of decision-making spaces. It’s this injustice that sparked the creation of the Australia Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) as a way to mobilise and organise young people to step up and demand more action from our elected leaders to protect the future they will inherit. Alex Fuller is the National Director of AYCC, and while in this role she’s empowering a whole new generation of climate leadership, she’s quick to point out there’s not only a role for people of all ages to amplify and support this work, but an essential responsibility.

Alex Fuller addressing the crowd at a Power Shift rally

Can you tell me a bit about yourself and how you came to be involved with the climate movement? 

I grew up in a small town in regional Tasmania, between the beach and the bush. My family had a strong focus on volunteering and giving back to the community that brought me up, so from a very early age I learnt that nothing that matters can be done alone. When I saw a map of how rising sea levels would affect our coastal town in highschool and came to understand how the climate crisis would make existing inequalities even worse, I knew my only option was to find other people who had the same concerns as me and to take action together. 

I started volunteering with AYCC about six years ago. At that stage we were working on the #StopAdani campaign, coming off the back of a big win getting the big four banks to rule out funding Adani’s Carmichael coal mine and turning our attention to shifting the politics on fossil fuels. We were running market stalls and door knocking, plastering posters across our suburbs, painting banners in the middle of the night, crashing political press conferences. We were having so much fun but having a big impact too, and this really inspired me about the power of youth-led community organising.

Fast forward a few years and I now have the privilege of leading the organisation. The supportive relationships formed through the movement and seeing the positive impact of our programs on other young people’s confidence to make a difference have kept me going during a turbulent few years. 

You recently won a second Groundswell grant. What are the priority areas for AYCC right now and how is this funding supporting this?

In the current political landscape, young people are increasingly recognised as a powerful voting constituency and we have a unique ability to engage and motivate older generations to take action as well. We're collaborating closely with a range of organisations across the climate movement who share our vision of leaving coal and gas in the ground, and we know young people have a critical role as leaders, organisers and spokespeople in this broader movement. 

The training and leadership programs Groundswell members are helping make happen are a critical part of how we build youth power and win campaigns to leave fossil fuels in the ground. From Cairns to Coonabarabran, every year thousands of young people are learning about community organising, storytelling, politics and campaigning strategy through our programs. We’re committed to investing in young people and setting them up on a lifelong journey of leadership and creating change in their communities. 

There are big fights ahead in the climate justice movement: from stopping fossil fuel expansion, making sure nobody is left behind in the transition to clean energy, and ensuring support for community-led responses to climate disasters. We’ll need a strong, diverse social movement to raise the bar on ambition and hold our governments to account for many years to come. By developing the skills and confidence of young people, we’re building the future leaders of this movement. 

AYCC community at a Power Shift rally

There are a lot of amazing climate solutions being driven by young people, but your contribution is about so much more than this. What else do young people bring to the climate table?

I really love this quote from renowned organiser Marshall Ganz: “Young people come of age with a critical eye and a hopeful heart. It’s that combination of critical eye and hopeful heart that brings change. That’s one reason why so many young people were and are involved in movements for social change.” We bring new perspectives that challenge the status quo, as well as the energy, passion and creativity required to create a better world.

Young people also often bring values of equity and solidarity to the forefront in campaigning on climate. We don’t live our lives through the lens of just one single issue and we know that solving the climate crisis is about more than just cutting emissions – it’s an opportunity to rethink the way this world operates and build a fairer future for everybody. And so there are a lot of conversations about the importance of First Nations leadership, racial justice, worker’s rights, action on housing, disability justice and so much more as being intertwined with our fights and our vision for the world we want to create.

It’s been a really big year for AYCC. As 2023 comes to an end, what are you reflecting on?

I’ve spent some time over recent weeks with former AYCC volunteers who are now playing leadership roles in a whole range of environmental organisations, broader civil society and the public and private sector. And what I hear so often is that the skills they learned at AYCC – in communication, facilitation, strategy, organising and thinking critically about power and politics – have been foundational in their broader lives. That the friendships, sense of confidence and agency, commitment to justice and hope for a better future have stuck with people well beyond the years that they are volunteering on our campaigns. 

I feel incredibly privileged to play a part in continuing this legacy of AYCC that has reached over 100,000 young leaders in the last seventeen years, and I know that this work is supporting the capacity of the whole climate movement in the long term.