Sophia Kianni shares how translating climate information, empowering young leaders, and building inclusive communication systems can strengthen climate action worldwide.
What problem in the climate movement led you to build Climate Cardinals, and how has that mission evolved as the organization has grown?
I started Climate Cardinals after realizing that most climate information exists in English, while most of the world does not. When I visited family in Iran, I saw firsthand how communities on the frontlines of climate change couldn’t access basic information about what was happening or what they could do. Billions of people were excluded from the conversations, not because they didn’t care, but because they didn’t have access. The truth is that climate change is a global crisis, yet the knowledge needed to understand and address it is concentrated in one language.
At first, our mission at Climate Cardinals was simple: translate climate resources into as many languages as possible. What began as a student-led initiative with $500 and a Google Form has grown into one of the largest youth-led climate education organizations in the world. Today, we have mobilized 19,000+ volunteers across 145 countries, launched 85 active chapters globally (84% based in the Global South), and cumulatively translated over 4 million words of climate content into 30+ languages.
As we’ve grown, our mission has evolved from simply translating content to building infrastructure for inclusive climate communication. We now train fellows through a 14-module leadership curriculum, with 20 fellows in our current cohort and 270 trained to date. Ninety-two per cent of our fellows have reported increased civic capacity. The deeper mission is language justice, ensuring that people everywhere can participate in climate conversations, policymaking, and solutions.
Access to information by simply translating is just the tip of the iceberg. The deeper mission is language justice, ensuring communities can not only understand climate science, but use it to advocate, organize, and lead. Today, that work is powered by a growing team of four full-time staff, alongside fellows and thousands of volunteers building climate resilience worldwide.
Climate Cardinals addresses language barriers in climate communication. How do gaps in access to information shape who gets to participate in climate action—and who gets left out?
Access to information determines who has access to power. If climate science, funding opportunities, and policy discussions are primarily published in English, then participation becomes limited to a small fraction of the world. Information gaps determine who can apply for grants, who can influence policy, and who can organize locally. When people don’t have access to credible, localized climate information, engagement can deteriorate. Entire communities, often those who are most impacted, are excluded from shaping the solutions.
Language barriers don’t just limit awareness, but they also limit leadership. They reinforce inequity. They limit whose ideas get funded and whose stories get heard. They limit representation. If we want a global climate movement, it can’t operate in just one language.
Where do you think youth-led climate movements are most effective today, and where do they still face real limitations?
Youth-led climate movements are incredibly effective at mobilizing quickly, building global networks, and ultimately shifting narratives. Because young people understand digital platforms intuitively, they are incredibly powerful in driving public awareness, using digital platforms to scale messaging globally in ways institutions often can’t. In just five years, we’ve grown to 19,000+ volunteer sign-ups and built a chapter network spanning six continents.
But the limitations still exist in structural power. Youth leaders often lack access to capital, formal political authority, and long-term institutional support. Momentum, therefore, can be high, but sustainability is difficult without infrastructure.
The next step of youth climate leadership isn’t just amplifying youth voices; it’s policy design, entrepreneurship, institutional leadership, and capital allocation. Through our Fellowship Program, 82% of fellows reported that their experience influenced their academic or professional goals. I believe it is truly urgent to continuously embed youth into systems of governance and long-term decision-making.
With climate urgency increasing alongside public fatigue, what approaches do you believe are most effective in sustaining meaningful engagement and long-term action?
Fear alone doesn’t sustain movements; agency does. When climate change feels overwhelming or abstract, people disengage. But when information is localized, accessible, and connected to their lived experience, engagement becomes personal.
At Climate Cardinals, that meant breaking language barriers so more communities could access and act on climate knowledge. But we also need clear pathways for action, tangible roles for individuals, and systems that allow better choices to be made more easily. Long-term engagement relies on progress that people feel they can participate in through everyday decisions.
That philosophy has influenced my work beyond Climate Cardinals as well. At Phia, we are proactive in creating avenues that make sustainable choices easier, clearer, and more intuitive. Overconsumption and waste are systemic drivers of emissions; technology, therefore, shouldn’t just make it easier to buy, it should make it easier to decide.
We need to move from doom to direction—from telling people how bad things are to showing them where they can lead. Long-term action happens when people feel not just informed, but empowered to act in ways that fit into their daily lives.
