Principle 12c of the Earth Charter stresses the importance to: “Honor and support the young people of our communities, enabling them to fulfill their essential role in creating sustainable societies.”

Earth Charter International believes that youth engagement, empowerment, and capacity building are essential for building a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world. Over the past decade, the ECI Secretariat has been offering platforms for youth to “learn the knowledge, values, and skills needed for a sustainable way of life.” ECI plans to continue supporting youth and encourage them to embrace the Earth Charter sustainability vision and foster a sense of global citizenship, as well as empowering them with the skills, attitudes, and values necessary to contribute in shaping a sustainable present and future through several yearly youth courses.

ECI work with youth involves:

a)    Inspiring and empowering young leaders to carry out sustainability projects and activities in their local contexts.
b)    Connecting young leaders to each other to share experiences and collaborate in different kinds of initiatives to make the Earth Charter principles a reality in their countries.
c)    Offering capacity building (both face-to-face and online) to young people through education programmes, workshops, and dialogues.
d)    Collecting best practice narratives and case studies on how young people have been inspired by and are using Earth Charter.
e)    Partnering with youth led organizations to develop specific projects to implement the Earth Charter principles into a wide variety of topics of sustainable development.

Through ECI Secretariat work, young people are encouraged to:

a)    Explore ways to understand, use, and promote the sustainability vision that the Earth Charter articulates appropriately and according to their individual setting/ context.
b)    Incorporate the Earth Charter as part of their activities, studies, discussion groups, workshops or work.
c)    Take on the responsibility of initiating a local Earth Charter Youth/Student Group to stimulate understanding of the vision and principles of sustainability in their home communities.
d)    Participate in the activities and online courses and webinars that the ECI Secretariat provides.
e)    Being a hub of innovation for new ideas on how to use the Earth Charter in both a local and global context

To these ends, the ECI Secretariat has developed educational courses, webinars, and workshops, as well as provided Earth Charter resource materials to assist young people to implement sustainable projects and initiatives.

Much of the work of awareness raising, networking, and education is undertaken through the Earth Charter Youth Network (ECYG), which is a diverse, interactive, global network of young people from over 60 countries around the world. These groups involved in the youth network have embraced the Earth Charter vision and committed to bring it into their daily lives, community and work activities.

ECYGs can be created in all kinds of settings, including schools, universities, associations, neighborhoods, and places of worship so long as people want to work together based on the values embedded in the Earth Charter.

The work of the ECYGs is reported and shared in an open site to encourage and support a cooperative learning environment. Individuals are also encouraged to apply to ECI to form a group and create a local ECYG.