
Overview
YEAH is proud to host 5th International Virtual Conference. The theme of the conference is Global actions for Environment, Justice and Sustainability. This is an international collaborative event aimed at growing the interdisciplinary evidence base discourses for social, economic, environmental research for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The four goals of the COP26 were to secure global net zero, adapt to protect communities and natural habitats, mobilise finance, and work together as a global community to deliver on the Paris Agreement.
Join us at our Youth Conference to engage with a global network and build your leadership in environmental and sustainability action and justice. Engage with incredible leaders and your fellow students from all over the world to create momentum for change at a global scale.
Time and Date:

Please use this link to find the time in your local time zone and add it to your calendar.
Please click here to register your attendance.
If you would also like to present a talk, please refer below and submit your abstract.
Participants can present via different modes of delivery, e.g. short talk, e-poster, video, slides other (7 minutes + 2 minutes of questions). Please use the link below to submit your abstract. Some examples from previous events are available here.
Abstract submissions are now closed. You can still register to attend the conference.
Please click here to see the concurrent session schedule.
Purpose
The purpose of the conference is to highlight issues of environment, justice and sustainability and include different voices in the climate justice debate.
The purpose of the conference is to:
- engage with leaders in government, industry and research
- present individual or group research relevant to the SDGs, climate action, or climate justice
- share knowledge between researchers and practitioners to help amplify and translate evidence-based practices
- understand and discuss issues relevant to COP27 Egypt
Who should attend?
All students undertaking studies at colleges and universities, at any level (undergraduate to PhD), from all disciplines and countries, are warmly welcomed at this diverse and inclusive event. Topics can relate to any of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and can take any disciplinary lens. Students at previous summits have joined from all areas of the world including from across the USA, Europe, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region. We can’t wait to welcome you.
How will the conference run?
It will run via Zoom and Padlet. We will send you all the links you need to access these in the program. The conference program will be emailed to you ahead of the conference.
- The conference will start with housekeeping and a discursive plenary.
- Participants will then move between small concurrent posters and talk sessions linked to particular SDGs. These will be moderated by academics and senior students. The conference environment will be supportive, inclusive, and dynamic.
- There will be a closing plenary session.
The conference is designed to be short, to suit the virtual format, and to keep things exciting!
Plenary Speakers


Jade Hameister is a record-breaking skier and explorer, who at the age of 16 became the youngest person in the world to complete the Polar Hat Trick. Jade’s quest began in 2016, when aged just 14, she became the youngest person in history to ski to the North Pole from anywhere outside the Last Degree. Then in 2017 she made history again by traversing the Greenland icecap unsupported and unassisted, making her the youngest woman ever to do so. In January 2018 Jade fulfilled her long-held Polar hat trick dream when she became the youngest person to ski from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole unsupported and unassisted. The epic journey in which she covered 1,300 km on skis dragging a heavy sled in freezing conditions also saw her become the first woman to set a new route from the Coast of Antarctica to the South Pole. And if that’s not enough, amongst other firsts, Jade holds the record of being the youngest person to ski to both Poles. Jade is passionate about raising awareness of the impact of climate change on the Earth’s beautiful and fragile polar wilderness which was captured in a 2018 feature-length movie by National Geographic Channel that documented her journeys and brought to light issues around global warming. Her message has since been heard across the world via TEDx, SOLVE and even at the Vatican, where she served as the Oceania Youth Representative. In 2019, she was awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for service to Polar exploration and has twice been named Young Adventurer of the Year by the Australian Geographic Society. Her message to women and youth is to focus on what their bodies and minds can do, to value bravery over perfection and to dare to be adventurous.

Lauren Eastwood is Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York, College at Plattsburgh. She is currently on leave from her position at SUNY and living in Duisburg, Germany where she is Senior Researcher at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg/Centre for Global Cooperation Research (KHK/GCR21). There, she also heads up the “Global Governance of Climate Change and Sustainability” policy field. Her primary research areas include civil society participation in policy making through the United Nations, the shifting politics of fracking and other forms of energy extraction, and the increasing criminalization of anti-fossil fuel activism. The research she does through the United Nations is ethnographic and participatory, in the sense that she attends meetings associated with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, and the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (among others) in order to investigate how it is that policy is actually negotiated within the context of UN-based deliberations. In these areas, she pays particular attention to the ways in which non-governmental and indigenous peoples attempt to influence policy processes. In her other research, she investigates the changing legal terrain of activism as people contest fossil-fuel based infrastructure.

Stacey Sublett Halliday is a Principal with the environmental law firm of Beveridge & Diamond, P.C., where she advises corporate clients on a range of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. Through her work at Beveridge & Diamond, Stacey provides an array of corporate social responsibility and sustainability services to help clients meet requirements and demand for ethical, sustainable practices clients—including circular economy, supply chain, and environmental justice (EJ) initiatives. Stacey previously held a political appointment as Special Counsel in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of General Counsel (OGC), where she worked directly with the General Counsel to coordinate OGC’s internal activities, in addition to serving as OGC’s primary liaison for external federal, state and private sector stakeholder engagement. Stacey also served as a senior member of the EPA oversight response team, where she provided legal and strategic guidance on congressional investigation and hearing preparation (including for the EPA Administrator and Deputy Administrator), White House and interagency coordination, and crisis management and strategic communications.She currently holds leadership roles with the American Bar Association (Chair, SEER Membership Diversity Enhancement Program; Vice Chair of Environmental Justice, Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Ecosystems Committee), and the Environmental Law Institute (Board Member; Steering Committee Chair, Emerging Leaders Initiative).

Dr Valerie Small is the National Program Director at the conservation non-profit Trees, Water & People. Dr Small focuses upon partnership building with Indigenous based non-profits and Tribal governments to increase capacity, facilitate funding for Tribal designed, led and managed natural resource projects that included rangelands, riparian and forest ecosystems within reservation boundaries and ancestral lands adjacent to Tribal lands. The primary focus on partnership building was to Indigenize our approach in building trust, within a community-based development framework. Dr Small developed new programs to include forest regeneration that increased the diversity mix of tree species to include culturally significant species such as plains cottonwoods (Populus delotides) chokecherry, buffalo berry and wild plum to empower tribal food sovereignty programs.
Schedule
Session time | Session Details |
---|---|
Session 1: 50 min Los Angeles, USA Thu, April 21, 2022 at 2:00 pm PDT Denver, USA Thu, April 21, 2022 at 3:00 pm MDT Nashville, USA Thu, April 21, 2022 at 4:00 pm CDT New York, USA Thu, April 21, 2022 at 5:00 pm EDT Derby, UK Thu, April 21, 2022 at 10:00 pm BST Melbourne, AU Friday, April 22, 2022 at 7:00 am AEST |
Global Action Leadership Dialogue 1: Engage in dialogue with leaders who focus upon intergovernmental processes and youth advocacy to create change. Join Lauren Eastwood and Jade Hamiester. Youth leaders who attended COP26 will moderate this session, and actively bring in diverse voices from youth participants in attendance (Cody Sanford, Colorado State University and Charles Doktycz and Madeline Allen, Vanderbilt University). |
Session 2: 10 min | Youth Debrief: Students will have the opportunity to discuss what they heard in the Leadership Dialogue, and network with students from around the world. Youth ideas will be captured via jam boards for incorporation in exhibits and talks at COP27. This session will be moderated by COP26 delegate, Shane French (Monash University). |
Session 3: 55 min (Concurrent session – schedule here) Los Angeles, USA Thu, April 21, 2022 at 3:00 pm PDT Denver, USA Thu, April 21, 2022 at 4:00 pm MDT Nashville, USA Thu, April 21, 2022 at 5:00 pm CDT New York, USA Thu, April 21, 2022 at 6:00 pm EDT Derby, UK Thu, April 21, 2022 at 11:00 pm BST Melbourne, AU Friday, April 22, 2022 at 8:00 am AEST |
Student Research in Action Presentations: Youth from all over the world will deliver short, dynamic presentations in the form of a poster, video or other (7 minutes + 2 minutes for questions). The talks can be delivered individually or as part of a team. These presentations can relate to local, regional or global research and impact. These can relate to the theme of creating action for the environment, justice and sustainability in any way. Presentations will be undertaken in concurrent sessions. Each session will be moderated by YEAH Fellows and Principal Investigators. At the end of each concurrent session, there will be 10 minutes of moderated discussion among speakers. What were the themes and commonalities among the talks in your session? These ideas will be captured for presentation at COP27. |
Session 4: 40 min Los Angeles, USA Thu, April 21, 2022 at 4:00 pm PDT Denver, USA Thu, April 21, 2022 at 5:00 pm MDT Nashville, USA Thu, April 21, 2022 at 6:00 pm CDT New York, USA Thu, April 21, 2022 at 7:00 pm EDT Derby, UK Thu, April 22, 2022 at 12:00 am BST Melbourne, AU Friday, April 22, 2022 at 9:00 am AEST |
Global Action Leadership Dialogue 2: Engage in dialogue with global leaders on topics of corporate social responsibility, environmental justice, and equity. What levers can we use to create change? Join Stacey Halliday and a Dr Valerie Small . Youth leaders who attended COP26 will moderate this session, and actively bring in diverse voices from youth participants in attendance (Connor McCarty and Kaydee Barker, Colorado State University). |
Session 5: 20 min | Open discussion: Youth participants will be able to ask their questions about how they can get involved in volunteering, action and other climate related opportunities. – Opportunities for climate action at “home” – Starting and/or strengthening an impactful career in sustainability/climate work – Power of networking – Agency and the growing power of young people to affect change Three youth leaders who attended COP26 will moderate this session (Jacob Genuise and Cody Sanford, Colorado State University, and Eugene Agyei, Michigan Technical University). |
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