Climate Action Secretary Gillian Martin announced on 21 September 2025 that £165,000 of Scottish government funding has been awarded to the Green Generation Initiative (GGI) Youth Accelerator Programme.
The GGI, founded and run by Kenyan climate activist Elizabeth Wathuti since 2016, will use the money to operate a year-long fellowship programme that trains 25 young people in Africa to make positive environmental change in their communities.
The programme focuses on access to sources of sustainable energy and food systems.
This pledge displays the government’s responsibility towards the UNICEF Declaration on Children, Youth and Climate Action, as well as furthers the participation of young people from the Global South in the climate conversation.
Martin announced the funding in a press release as part of Climate Week NYC, the world’s largest climate gathering outside of the Conference of the Parties (COP).
She explained the Sottish government’s investment:
“Those who have contributed the least to global emissions are the ones most vulnerable to its impacts.”
Past action by the GGI includes the participation of 150 African youths in the COP27 and COP28 conferences under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Speaking to The Student, a second year Environmental Geoscience student commented:
“It’s promising to see the Scottish Government acting with the Sustainable Development Goals in mind instead of just addressing ‘CO2 levels’, but the programme is only accessible to a few. Having a wider approach or a public scheme might be useful in the future.”
This is the first time that the government has given funding to the GGI.
It comes as the latest in a series of climate commitments, including an update to the Climate Change Plan that includes decarbonising the electricity sector as part of the aim to emit net zero greenhouse gases by 2045.
“People collecting water from the Turkwell river in Lodwar, northern Kenya” by DFID – UK Department for International Development is licensed under CC BY 2.0.