Scottish Youth Climate Coalition: election wrap up and next steps

Teach the Future is proud to be part of the newly formed Scottish Youth Climate Coalition (SYCC), alongside 2050 Climate Group, Young Friends of the Earth Scotland, Green New Deal Rising, People and Planet Edinburgh and Young Sea Changers Scotland.

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We launched a joint youth climate and nature campaign ahead of the May 2026 elections. Together we decided upon five key areas important to young people: 

• Energy
• Transport
• Education & Employment
• Marine Environment
• Circular Economy

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For each of these areas we wrote three policy demands to Scottish government.

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We also created the following questions for MSP candidates:

• How can we deliver an energy transition that lowers energy costs, strengthens community ownership, and gives young people a real voice in shaping their energy future? 
• Will you push the Scottish government to support regional transport authorities to take buses back under public ownership so they can be run for people rather than profit? 
• To what extent do you think the Scottish education system should centre integrate sustainability across its curricula and campuses, and what role could education play in supporting a just transition? 
• Scotland's Marine Assessment 2020 concluded that the health of Scotland's marine environment is in decline. What are three things your party will do to protect and restore Scotland's marine biodiversity? 
• What will you do to hold corporations to account for upholding a throw-away culture that leads to mass waste, especially through the non-essential use of critical minerals? 

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To mobilise young people to engage with their political candidates on their climate and nature commitments, we organised a Youth Climate Husting, which was a great success, with over 100 people taking part in person and online! Candidates across the political spectrum were asked the coalition’s questions above, then young people from the audience had a chance to ask additional questions.

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Alongside our hustings we also organised a Scottish candidate climate card campaign, inspired by Teach the Future’s general election report card campaign. Young people were supported to contact their MSP candidates asking them to submit written responses to the questions above, and their responses were graded from A-D. 

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What were the election results?

The SNP still holds the most seats in the Scottish parliament, however they don’t have a majority, so they will continue to rely on the support of other parties to pass laws. Reform and Labour tied in second place, meanwhile, Conservatives experienced considerable losses, whilst Lib Dems and Greens achieved notable gains. 

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Of the MSP candidates who attended our climate hustings. Ross Greer from the Scottish Greens was reelected. Of the MSP candidates who completed our candidate cards, Q Manivannan, Cara McKee, Patrick Harvie and Mark Ruskell from the Scottish Greens were elected or reelected, all of whom received an A. Meanwhile, Jackie Dunbar from the SNP, who received a D, was also reelected. You can check out their climate report cards here.

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What next?

At this point it is hard to predict exactly what these changes mean for climate and nature, but now is a more important time than ever for the SYCC to continue to expand, promote our policy demands to the new government, and collaborate on future projects to elevate youth voices on environmental issues.

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If you want to get involved with the SYCC,  just email SYCC@2050.scot, we’d love to hear from you.

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Finally, a huge thank you to everyone in the SYCC, and to everyone who came to our hustings and contacted their candidates - we couldn’t have done this without your support!

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