YES-Europe and EYEN team built roadmap through participatory research

YES-Europe and the European Youth Energy Network (EYEN) present their recommendations for COP30. YES-Europe’s COP30 team, led by Amaryllis Perotti and Caterina Bittendorf, and supported by EYEN coordinators Marion Revest and Leonardo Cangelmi, developed a green jobs advocacy roadmap over several months using participatory research with members across Europe and consultation with energy sector stakeholders. Caterina Bittendorf, Germany’s Youth Delegate to the UNFCCC, will represent the team at the UN climate negotiations in Belém, Brazil (10-21 November). As for many other child- & youth organisations, prohibitive costs for accommodation, and travel block other team members from attending. Nevertheless, it is crucial to make young voices heard at the most important climate negotiation forum – and present concrete actionable items for decision-makers to implement.

The team consulted YES-Europe and EYEN members, professionals working across the energy sector, about actual job conditions, training gaps, and barriers in the just energy transition. Plus, interviewed two companies shifting from fossil fuels to renewables: EDP Renewables and Sustainable Energy for All. Finding: coal and oil workers still earn more and get stronger protections than renewable energy workers across Europe.

“At UN negotiations in Bonn in June, youth employment was barely mentioned in draft texts,” said Amaryllis Perotti, YES Europe project lead. “We built this roadmap through bottom-up research to fill that gap.”

The team discloses that we received no funding for this work and that we have no ties to the fossil fuel industry and no conflict of interest. The roadmap was primarily developed by YES-Europe’s volunteer team, with coordination support from EYEN.

The Roadmap: Five Policy Areas

The roadmap covers five areas:

Just Transition: Target youth employment in regions where coal plants close. Replicate high labour standards from fossil fuel sectors in renewables. Include both formal workers and informal workers often excluded from transition frameworks.

Skills Development: Ensure training covers all levels: from AI specialists to electricians. Support both youth entering first jobs and experienced workers switching sectors. The team proposes a Global Green Skills Partnership at COP30.

Youth Inclusion: Move beyond consultation to decision-making power. Make youth hiring quotas (minimum 15% entry-level workers) binding in public procurement. Ban unpaid internships in green sectors.

Gender Equality: Women are 39% of the global workforce but only 20% in energy — nearly twice the gap seen across the economy. Recommendations include equal parental leave, recognition of (unpaid) care work and recognising activism as job experience, and support for women in all their diversities in technical roles. Governments must ensure that all policies are gender-transformative and address the disproportionate effect of climate induced impacts on girls, women and gender-diverse individuals.

Adequate Funding: EU climate funds currently allocate zero euros for youth green job creation despite 2040 targets affecting 40% of EU workers. The roadmap calls for dedicated budget lines for a just transition and implementation of the polluter-pays principle throughout all climate finance.

The 10 policy recommendations address COP30 negotiating Parties, EU policymakers, and energy sector stakeholders. Each recommendation includes implementation pathways with best practices from companies making the transition. Now it’s time for implementation. Jointly, we call upon decision-makers to not only recognise the problems, but actively address them.

The Team: YES-Europe Led Development

Project leads and core team (YES-Europe):

Amaryllis Perotti (Junior Energy Expert (Energy and Consumers), IEECP Amsterdam) and Caterina Bittendorf led development of the roadmap, coordinating contributions across two networks. The core research and writing team was based in YES-Europe:

Martina Chiarini (policy research), Suvd-Erdene Otgonbaatar (policy research), Stefano Cisternino (communications), Maximilian Buchsteiner (conference coordination).

EYEN coordinators:

Leonardo Cangelmi and Marion Revest (research and stakeholder engagement).

Additional EYEN contributors:

Maryana Malyshevska, Mahir Ege Hepsen, Giang Ngoc Huong Vu, Ana Maria Lopes, Cassandra Muylaert, and Georgiana Daria Sorescu.

The team presented the roadmap at YES Europe’s Annual Conference (2-4 October). Energy practitioners asked how to adapt recommendations to national contexts and requested implementation timelines—the roadmap addresses real practitioner needs.

“We’re the ones building wind farms and writing energy policy,” said Perotti. “This roadmap comes from our experience and the experience of young professionals across Europe. Caterina will bring that collective knowledge to Belém.”

Impact and Next Steps

The roadmap goes public in the coming weeks. It will be presented at COP30,. The aim: raise awareness that the energy transition needs quality jobs that match or exceed fossil fuel sector standards, or workers won’t make the switch. Plus, suggest concrete actions including social and gender-transformative aspects to enable a real just transition that leaves no one behind.

The team will share updates from COP30 through YES Europe’s channels. This work shows what youth networks can do with research, collaboration and the will to make a change!.

About YES-Europe & EYEN

YES-Europe (Young leaders in Energy and Sustainability) is the European network of young professionals in the energy sector and an accredited observer organisation to the UNFCCC. www.yeseurope.org

About EYEN

The European Youth Energy Network (EYEN) unites 28 youth energy organisations across 15+ countries, with over 2,000 young professionals and students. www.youthenergy.eu