Maryam Jimale, Maanya Jones, Monika Milewska, Joseph Rees, Maddy Westhead, Max Edgington and Imogen Hamilton-Jones [Catarina Heeckt]

IMAGES of striking school children and protesters like Greta Thunberg tell us that young people are passionate about climate change.

But this is rarely reflected in political decision-making about the climate, where fewer than 10 percent of young people feel they have a significant say, according to a YouGov poll.

Hoping to buck the trend, Islington Council joined up with the London School of Economics (LSE) for a year-long project to investigate how Gen Z “experience and imagine” the green transition in their neighbourhoods.

Imogen Hamilton-Jones, who coordinated the project at LSE, said: “It was very much led by young people and focused on recognising their expertise.

“It was a balance between asking ‘what do you really want from the streets of Islington?’ And encouraging them to be radical and ambitious, but also working with the council to see what is practical was a big part of it.”

Four young Islingtonians were paid and trained to lead the research themselves.

Speaking to 158 peers in the borough, they found that young people wanted to be more involved in local decisions but often didn’t know how to go about it.

“So many young people don’t understand how local government works at all,” said Ms Hamilton-Jones.

Young people were asked to be radical [Catarina Heeckt]

“There’s work to be done to make it feel like something they have a bit of ownership over.”

This was borne out by the recent public consultation on a “liveable neighbourhood” scheme – the newer iteration of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) – in Mildmay, where only seven of the 500 responses came from 18-24 year olds.

And while we might think of young people as the generation most likely to mobilise around climate change, “it’s hard for young people to feel that climate change is the most pressing thing on their time,” Ms Hamilton-Jones said.

“The young people we met were worried about having secure jobs, about violence and mental health. They might not see themselves as climate activists, because they think of that as quite lecture-y and negative, rather than a call for a hopeful future. But I think looking at it on a local level can create space for more hope.”

The idea of making neighbourhoods “liveable” – rather than the more overtly climate-focused term LTNs – has been used to engage young people with climate change in Islington’s own streets.

Ms Hamilton-Jones said: “It [makes climate action] much more relatable. It was interesting to me how much they valued in-person connection with their neighbours and friends – they wanted Islington to be a social space as well as a green space.”

Ten recommendations came out of the project, including policymakers accompanying women and non-binary people around the borough to see where they feel unsafe and improving those areas, and encouraging the use of green spaces with free events.

Ms Hamilton-Jones added: “We hear a lot about young people being disenfranchised, but we shouldn’t underestimate how smart and open-minded they are. The world feels really overwhelming, so finding entry points that make political change feel possible is important.”