A nationwide youth-led initiative brings district-specific climate concerns to Dhaka, aiming to shape Bangladesh’s youth position ahead of global climate negotiations.
More than 100 young people marched through Dhaka’s Gulshan area on Saturday, carrying 64 placards representing climate demands from each district of Bangladesh, which they will present to policymakers as part of a youth contribution to COP31.
The rally, titled “Youth Voices from the Frontline”, began at 4:00pm outside Police Plaza Concord in Gulshan 1 and ended at the Global Platform Bangladesh training centre on Road 128. At the front of the march were 64 young people, each holding a demand raised from one district of the country.
The event was organised by ActionAid Bangladesh’s Global Platform Bangladesh with support from Brighters Society of Bangladesh. Participants included representatives from 18 youth-led organisations, along with civil society groups and national youth organisations.
The demands were gathered through an open call inviting young people across Bangladesh to identify the climate challenges facing their own areas. Together, the demands reflected a range of impacts affecting communities, including salinity in coastal regions, riverbank erosion along chars, flash floods in the haor basin and heat stress and declining water tables in northern areas.
“In our area the soil is saline and so is the water in our tube wells,” said a young participant in the rally. “People are giving up farming and young people are leaving for the cities to find work. We have not come here asking for relief. We have come asking for a livelihood that can survive on saline land.”
Nazmul Ahsan, Lead of the Youth, Resilience and Climate Justice team at ActionAid Bangladesh, said the process was designed to bring community voices into climate discussions.
“These 64 demands did not come from a conference room alone. Young people from communities already absorbing climate loss and damage carried them here. Our responsibility is to make sure they are heard where decisions are made,” he said.
The march marked the opening of Bangladesh Youth CoP 2026, held under the theme “Paris to Antalya: A Decade of Climate Commitments and Realities”. The programme examines progress a decade after the Paris Agreement and asks how much of the commitments made have reached communities facing climate impacts.
Over the following three days, youth organisations are scheduled to lead side events focusing on mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, technology transfer and capacity building.
At the closing session on Sept 22, participants will incorporate the 64 demands into the Bangladesh Youth Position 2026 and hand it to representatives of Bangladesh’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and stakeholders involved in international negotiations such as COP31.
