A planetary redesign needs new engineers: youth
Redesigning a system does not always mean starting from scratch. It means finally seeing it clearly: understanding what it was built for, what it left out, and what it must become. More than three billion people live in areas highly vulnerable to climate change, and the impacts fall hardest on those who contributed the least. About 700 million of them live in Asia and the Pacific. This is the generation most exposed to a crisis they did not cause, and they are already responding to it. Nearly 70 percent of people under 18 call it a global emergency. They are not waiting to be asked. They are already drawing up new blueprints.
But a blueprint is only the beginning. A survey of young social entrepreneurs across Asia-Pacific found that 85 percent face challenges advancing climate action, with lack of finance, connections, and training cited as the biggest obstacles. The challenge is rarely the idea for entrepreneurs, innovators, and builders who have grown up with the consequences of a warming world. It is what comes next: the capital, the networks, the support to move from prototype to impact at scale.
That is the gap the Climate Catalysts programme, developed by UNDP and Microsoft, is designed to close. Young people today are more entrepreneurial, more collaborative, and more systems-oriented than any generation before them, but talent and ambition alone are not enough. The programme backs early-stage, youth-led ventures working on clean air, food security, renewable energy, water, and the circular economy, accelerating the most promising founders and helping them translate bold ideas into scalable, investable impact.
What is emerging from the programme’s more than 380 applications is a new kind of sustainable infrastructure: business models, technologies, and community-led approaches that are regenerative by design. From Singapore, Flint is rethinking how we store energy by building batteries from renewable materials that perform without the environmental cost. Greenairy, designs smart plant towers that use natural microbial processes to filter indoor air pollution in offices and schools. Riffai, from Thailand, uses satellite data and AI to identify renewable energy opportunities and the climate risks that shape them.
That vision of regenerative, community-rooted infrastructure is also what drew Microsoft to the programme. “At Microsoft, we believe that the future of sustainable infrastructure must be built with and for the communities it serves. Guided by our Community Pledge and our commitment to community-first infrastructure, we are working to ensure that our investments – including in data center regions – create lasting local value. This approach is grounded in our broader sustainability commitments – to become a carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste company while protecting ecosystems by 2030 – and in our belief that technology and partnerships can help accelerate climate solutions at scale.
Across Asia and the Pacific, young innovators are leading the way in tackling climate challenges, and through our partnership with UNDP, we are proud to support their efforts to design solutions that are not only scalable, but deeply rooted in community needs – helping to build more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable communities for the future.” Alvin Heng, Vice President, APAC Regional Leader, Microsoft
Across the region, young entrepreneurs are making food systems climate-resilient. Young technologists are building tools that make carbon visible and accountable. Young innovators are reimagining water and waste as resources solutions, not problems. This is no coincidence; across the region, a pattern is forming. What this generation shows us, again and again, is that when young people are given access to capital, networks, and enabling ecosystems, they deliver.
“For UNDP, through the Youth Moonshot, we will continue working with governments, academia, and partners in the private sector like Microsoft to ensure young innovators are not just consulted on the solutions but seated at the table where decisions are made.” Beniam Gebrezghi, Programme Specialist in Civic Society and Youth, UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub
On this World Environment Day, as the world unites around the call to act #NowForClimate, we stand with the young people of Asia and the Pacific who are already answering it. Join us in backing the next generation of climate entrepreneurs, because the future they are building is one we all stand to inherit.