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Welcome to the Santa Clara Youth Climate Action Team! We are a group of 15 students and young adults that are passionate about tackling climate change with impactful actions at the local level. We believe that empowering the community to take action against climate change with information and education, as well as direct advocacy with local government is the way to make a long-lasting difference.

If this sounds interesting to you, register here [link ] to get involved!

Goals:

To make Santa Clara as climate-friendly as possible by instituting sustainable policies in local government.
To train all SCYCAT youth to become capable leaders.
To raise awareness in our community about the severity of climate change through our advocacy presence.

2026 Achievements

Received the Earth Day Proclamation from the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors

2025 Achievements

Lead Volunteering Program at Ulistac - we established a program in our city where youth can volunteer to preserve and upkeep one of our local natural areas. Youth got to volunteer and learn about native plants of California.

In relation to the Lead Volunteering Program Santa Clara team had a close relationship with the staff of Ulistac Natural Preserve and we helped create a plan to open a new part of the park.
Bike Lane Advocacy - We worked on bike lane advocacy for a few year and established bike lanes along Pruneridge and Lafayette
Green Careers Podcast - Recently we worked on a green careers podcast where we interviewed people working in climate fields and asked them questions that youth looking to get involved in climate careers would find insightful and helpful.
Library/ Public Climate Literacy (In Progress) - We are establishing connections with public libraries to promote climate literacy in our community , we are going to have our first climate literacy event this August.

2024 achievements

Advocacy: We advocated for safer bicycle lanes:

Pruneridge Avenue

Bike lanes transitioned from roadway configuration concept to hybrid concept
Buffered bike lanes were implemented

Lafayette Street

Buffered bike lanes were installed to ensure protected bike lanes

Climate Literacy:

Spoke at the SCUSD Climate Action Summit
Spread climate awareness and shared about starting climate initiatives
Partnered with environmental clubs in Santa Clara Unified School District

Current Projects:

Continuing to meet with various council members/city staff to establish strong relationships.
Advocating for SCUSD schools to electrify their schools with renewable energy by installing solar panels.
Researching Santa Clara city environmental policy in order to identify important areas to advocate our advocacy, ultimately creating a list of our demands.
Climate Literacy Events: Starting climate literacy events at Santa Clara city libraries and conducting monthly environmental science workshops at City of Santa Clara elementary schools
Ulistac: Create off-site Ulistac volunteering opportunities
Recruitment: Recruit 10+ members to the Santa Clara Team before the end of the 24-25 school year.

Past Projects:

1.

We successfully hosted a city council candidate forum focusing on climate issues on October 9th, 2020.

2.

Climate Action Plan and local policy research in order to identify our advocacy focuses

3.

4.

Thanks to months of advocacy from our Santa Clara Youth Climate Action Team and other local groups, the City of Santa Clara voted to approve a strong all-electric reach code! City Staff and Leaders agree, our Youth Climate Action Teams are making a difference across our County and beyond.

Successfully advocated for SC city council to keep their more aggressive GHG emissions reduction target of 80% by 2035 and pass an aggressive climate motion, which would include actions like implementing a CAP progress-tracking dashboard, adopting an all-electric reach code, and a burnout ordinance.