Letter from our board chair and executive director

Dear student energy community…

Through the highs and lows of this rollercoaster of a year that was 2021, we at Student Energy feel lucky to get to witness, support, and be inspired by the passion and resilience of Student Energy’s global community. Young people around the world have consistently demonstrated their determination to work on climate solutions. The milestones and progress that Student Energy’s network was able to achieve this year are a testament to that statement.

Around the world, young people are excited about the potential to work in energy and be part of climate solutions. Yet, they still face disproportionate barriers to being able to start their career or launch their first business. To do our part to close this gap and do our part to achieve SDG 7, Student Energy launched the Solutions Movement, our UN Energy Compact. Our goal is to mobilize $150 million to provide coaching, mentorship funding and training for 10,000 youth-led energy projects by 2030.

Young people are currently an overlooked climate solution. We have the opportunity to support them in becoming the professionals, entrepreneurs, and community members the world needs to achieve a sustainable energy system.

In 2021, we were thrilled with the progress of our community in delivering on this work. Leveraging this momentum, Student Energy was able to grow as an organization and support over thirty staff and associates around the world working to scale our Programs Ecosystem. This not only allows more youth to be positively impacted by our programming, but also provides us the opportunity to directly learn from the young people we are working to serve. This year, we were able to engage double the number of teams in the Student Energy Fellowship, welcome twelve new university chapters around the globe, support the SevenGen Council in their next phase of growth, incorporate the recommendations of our intersectional equity taskforce, and plan the launches of two new programs: Ventures and Career Training. This growth allows us to take deliberate action on youth empowerment in the energy system in the areas that need it most.

One of the accomplishments we are most proud of is the launch of the Global Youth Energy Outlook. Working with over 40,000 youth globally, we addressed the large data gap that exists on mapping out what young people want from the energy transition and how they want to work with governments, companies, and organizations to make it happen. With over 82% of young people globally saying they would vote for a politician based on energy policy, it’s clear that the transition has an incredible force of champions we need to support in order to accelerate change.

In 2022 and beyond, Student Energy will continue to grow our programs to a scale that allows us to provide young leaders with the capacity they need to drive change. We will remain committed to the goals of the Solutions Movement and actively include youth in our decisionmaking processes as we progress towards a sustainable, equitable energy future.

As you read through this report, we hope that you will also be inspired to join a Student Energy program or become part of the support system working leveraging intergenerational collaboration to deploy the solutions we all need.