Meet the adaptation generation

For young Australians, adapting to climate change is not a choice.

Climate change has been the backdrop to Yehansa Dahanayake’s life. 

“The last time that it wasn't a record-breaking year [for heat temperatures], I was six. I'm 17 now,” she shared with the audience at AdaptNSW Forum 2025.

The climate advocate described how young people are already “making deliberate choices” by adapting their habits and expectations in response to a changing climate. Many have altered what they eat, how they travel, how they think about careers and whether they plan to have children.

“I think the notion of adapting ourselves to climate change can be kind of hard for young people to understand,” Yehansa observed. For those who have grown up with climate change, adaptation is not abstract – it is intuitive, part of how they already navigate the world.

Adapting to climate change can be a creative act, she said. “An opportunity to create new art, new buildings, new innovative forms of transport.” Adaptation can be more like a puzzle than a problem. “It's something exciting and playful that we can experiment with to create stronger solutions.”

“I think it’s really weird that naivety is labelled an insult... I've been called naive and that I don't have enough knowledge of the real world to influence real change. But in the adaptation space, I think that naivety is a superpower.”

Yehansa Dahanayake, Youth Researcher, Young & Resilient Research Centre, Western Sydney University

Lived experience shapes climate conversations

AdaptNSW Forum 2025 placed young people at the centre of several sessions, including ‘Voices for climate’, moderated by Yehansa, during which speakers shared personal experiences.

Layla Wang, a UNICEF Australia Young Ambassador, described growing up in regional New South Wales where climate disasters were formative events. 

“I not only had to flee from the Black Summer fires, but I was also isolated from the 2022 Kangaroo Valley floods where the road essentially dropped into the river. So, there was no vehicular access, no power, no electricity. I was completely cut off. All these disasters I experienced before the age of 18.” 

“While facts and figures are quite important, it is the power of sharing one’s lived experience that humanises… consultations [in]to more productive, deep and engaging conversations.”

Layla Wang, UNICEF Australia Young Ambassador

Ray Newland’s lived experience also inspired his climate activism. Working in a call centre at the Australian Taxation Office during the 2019–20 bushfire recovery, he encountered the human consequences of climate shocks firsthand.

“I was having sometimes two-hour-long phone calls with people [who] had lost their livelihoods.” This work brought policy into Ray’s line of sight. Climate mitigation and adaptation “comes down to policy,” he said. This realisation inspired him to establish the Youth Climate Policy Centre.

Climate awareness through everyday work

Not all paths into climate advocacy begin with disaster. For some, it emerges through the routines of everyday work.

Hannah Fennell, a paraplanner with the City of Newcastle, described reviewing hundreds of development applications each year. 

“Every day in my work, I witness the overconsumption and construction of decorative alterations, additions and ancillary developments, AKA the renovations that prioritise aesthetics over climate resilience,” she said.

“Cosmetic improvements might add superficial value, [but] they have serious environmental and social implications, including reducing green spaces and urban ecosystems… increasing flooding, urban heat and coastal erosion, not to mention the exacerbation of the cost of living and housing crisis.

“People are happy to invest and spend the money, trust me. I see it every day,” Hannah said. “So how do we market sustainability and strengthen our climate resilience?” she asked.

Starting close to home

For Kal Glanznig, climate action became tangible through local politics. After years of youth climate advocacy, he decided to run for local council in his community of Cronulla. Since his election, Kal has helped introduce climate strategies, tree canopy initiatives and bushland protections.

His message to the forum audience was simple: change often begins closer to home than people expect.

“How can you change your own individual world? And what's within your control? Your workplace, your colleagues, your friends, your family, your local councils, your state MPs, your federal MPs. What is your world?” he challenged the audience.

Lived experience as expertise

Jack Rowland, a member of the Climate and Health Alliance Youth Climate and Health Leaders’ Council, also emphasised the importance of including lived experience in policy development.

As someone living with a neuromuscular condition, he has participated in health advocacy panels. “Lived experience is super important – not only in adjusting policies that currently exist,” but also in identifying gaps and supporting governments to implement solutions.

The same principle, Jack suggested, applies to climate adaptation: those most affected by climate impacts should help shape the responses.

Innovation, science and new solutions

Several speakers highlighted the wide range of initiatives already underway.

Entrepreneur Kirah Godsell described her startup Air2Energy, which is developing a retrofit system that converts pollution from shipping vessels into usable energy.

Marine scientist Indy Fox outlined efforts by the organisation Seabin to collect and analyse pollution in Sydney Harbour. Sarah Boutchard, an engineer working in the healthcare sector, described her efforts to rethink medical waste. 

Medical student Oliver Hervir spoke about the emerging field of planetary health, while Ashwini Aravinthan, a UNICEF Australia Young Ambassador, spoke about the importance of integrating climate science into school curricula. 

“Young people want to see a greater integration of climate science within the curriculum… It’s one thing to know about climate change and its impacts, but it's another thing to know about what actually causes climate change and the science behind that.”

Ashwini Aravinthan, UNICEF Australia Young Ambassador

Emily Rowland, working with Regen Sydney, explored how stronger local food systems can build community resilience, while Georgina Hughes, a climate change and sustainability officer at Hunter Water, outlined the role of water utilities in climate adaptation. Renewable energy engineer Stanley Tanudjaja called for stronger coordination to scale climate solutions.

A design sprint paired these youth leaders with professionals from government, research and industry, generating ideas from engagement platforms to tools for broadening participation in climate policy consultations.

Learning from Country

One of the most powerful reflections came from Takesa Frank, a proud Aboriginal woman living on Yuin Country on the NSW south coast. Near her home stands a towering spotted gum known as “Big Spotty” – the tallest of its kind in the world and estimated to be more than 500 years old.

“This tree is really important culturally because it is a mothering tree, which means that all of the trees around Big Spotty require Big Spotty to thrive and survive,” Takesa said.

Big Spotty represents an interdependent system of care, and is a reminder that resilience is collective, not individual.

“The 2019 and 2020 black summer bushfires… came within 500 metres from my family house. We saw 85 per cent of our South Coast forests get burnt in those fires, and then we also saw over three billion animals killed and displaced. These animals are our totems and so much a part of our culture.

“So, when we look at climate change and the impact that is happening on the ground, we have to make sure First Nations people are at the centre of decision-making.”

This is the adaptation generation: young people already living with the impacts of climate change and shaping our response.