Growing Voices: Youth, Green Spaces, and the Future of the Climate Crisis in LOOK: Climate Lab 2026

Recentering young people as agents of change

With climate change accelerating at an unprecedented rate, climate discourse often frames young people as inheritors of a degraded planet. LOOK: Climate Lab 2026 invites us to see young people as storytellers and agents of environmental change by documenting human-nature relationships, imagining greener futures, and shaping how communities understand and engage with their local environment. 

While young people have the most at stake in terms of securing a greener future, they often feel overlooked and ignored in climate discourses, from everyday conversations to government policy. 

According to a YouGov Poll conducted in 2023,

‘Only 9% of people aged 16-24 felt young people have a great deal of influence making decisions about climate change.’

Despite feeling they have little impact on climate-related decisions, research from the National Lottery Community Fund found that an overwhelming 62% of young people aged 16-34 are concerned about the impact of climate change on their local community. 

In a world where young people’s climate anxieties are often dismissed or diluted, youth-focused, collaborative projects like Seeds of Change, OFFSHOOT and TreeStory Wigan aim to give young people a platform not only to respond to climate issues, but actively shape conversations about nature, identity and the everyday spaces they inhabit.

OFFSHOOT: Beyond Nature as a Backdrop

As part of OFFSHOOT, Liz Lock’s photographs explore the intersection between nature and identity. For the project, Liz worked at RHS Garden Bridgewater and with different groups from Salford’s community, including youth groups from Salford Youth Service. Alongside taking portraits of young people, Liz delivered workshops combining photography, storytelling and reflections on nature.

Liz’s work entailed photographing young people in their favourite natural environment, ranging from local hedges to darkened woods and vibrant trees. This approach reframes the climate crisis from an abstract, global issue to something we encounter everyday in our local environments, whether in local parks, streets, gardens, or around our homes. Like much of Liz’s previous work, a lot of the young people captured in OFFSHOOT have their own distinct, personal style, one which comes alive through the mode of portraiture. Liz said of her practice,

‘I especially love working with portraiture and see it as a chance to spend a unique moment with someone.’

For Liz, portraiture and collaborative storytelling are central tools for understanding the experiences of young people today. Her approach foregrounds the importance of building trust and creating space for young participants to organically shape the project themselves. Midway through OFFSHOOT, Liz said of the process:

‘I am halfway through the sessions with my current groups and it has taken that long to build up a rapport with them. I look forward to the coming weeks where the photography and writing will start to take shape.’

Socially engaged photography in particular emphasises collaboration over authorship, and can therefore be uniquely empowering for young people, as they get to decide what and which stories are told, and how. By putting young people’s perspectives at the forefront of the climate crisis, Liz provides a series of unique snapshots that enable young people to process their own feelings about the environment, transforming anxiety and uncertainty into actionable change.

Seeds of Change: Reimagining Green Spaces in the Everyday

Seeds of Change is a live project developed by students and graduates at the University of Salford, Nia Hoffman, Fariba Najafi Barzegar and Frances Veltkamp. Collaborating with university staff, the Open Eye Gallery, and landscape architects Planit, the team designed a series of sustainable and multi-sensory artworks for the campus.

What makes Seeds of Change particularly powerful is its focus on everyday environments that are often overlooked. The project aims to transform the campus into a “green doorway”, combining ecology with creative design to encourage biodiversity and provide a welcoming, vibrant, and environmentally-conscious space for all. Rather than attempting to tackle climate change on a large-scale, the project demonstrates how eco-conscious design and collaborative thinking can reshape urban spaces into sites of ecological imagination and regeneration. Nia, one of the designers, commented on the importance of spaces made for communities, by communities.

‘When people are invested in their spaces and have been involved in building them together, they’re so much more likely to engage and maintain momentum in the long-term.’

By involving emerging creatives in the design process, the project also reflects a broader shift toward environmental stewardship, where young creatives are not just documenting the climate crisis but active designers of sustainable futures and pioneers of the climate movement. 

TreeStory Wigan: Bridging Generational Gaps

While OFFSHOOT and Seeds of Change focuses on young voices, TreeStory Wigan expands the conversation to the wider community. Developed to celebrate Wigan’s 50th anniversary, the project invites residents to share personal stories about the trees that shape their local landscape. From witnessing a cherished family tree bloom over the decades to a young person’s connections with the transforming landscape, TreeStory Wigan bridges intergenerational gaps by representing the richly varied but universal connections we have to nature.

Led by photographers Lizzie King and Andy Yates, the initiative invites schools, community groups and residents to connect with Wigan’s unique natural and industrial heritage through workshops, walks and creative activities.

With support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, by 2022 the project was able to build an interactive online map to share TreeStories. This map, containing stories ranging from the nostalgic and sweet to the deeply personal and profound, reflect the diverse and distinct relationships communities have with their local trees, whether old or young. 

Sarah Fisher, Director of Open Eye Gallery, said, 

‘We are committed to ensuring that this distinctive heritage site continues to inspire and benefit future generations.’

While we may think that memories of nature are rooted in older generations, TreeStories proves they are alive and at the forefront of the minds of young people today. By harnessing the power of nature to document present as well as past histories, TreeStory Wigan empowers people to both conserve nature and take decisive action to a greener future.

Learn more and submit your own Wigan TreeStory at wigan.treestory.me.

A Call to Action

While the climate crisis is often framed through inaccessible statistics and complex discourses, initiatives like LOOK:Climate Lab highlight the importance of storytelling and accessibility. Young people, through projects like Seeds of Change, OFFSHOOT and TreeStory Wigan are contributing to new narratives about care, community and ecological connection. These projects demonstrate that climate engagement does not always begin with activism in the traditional sense, but often emerge through creative practices and collaboration.

Whether designing sustainable planting schemes, photographing moments of connection in your back garden, or sharing personal narratives about place, LOOK Climate Lab reveals how climate action can begin with everyday relationships to places, plants and each other.

Text: Mariam Findler