Climate assemblies with children and youth: a systematic literature review of existing experiences and initiatives

Abstract This article presents a systematic review on child and youth participation in climate assemblies. The objective is to analyse the experiences carried out to date, their evaluation processes and the impacts derived from them. With the PRISMA methodology, 18 documents, published between 2014 and 2025, were identified that describe 22 experiences in government-led, community and school contexts. The results show that most of the initiatives are promoted and run by adults, and the participation of children and young people tends to be consultative in nature. The assessment of the impact of these experiences is mainly based on facilitators’ and participants’ perceptions and testimonies without rigorous frameworks that make it possible to measure real effects at the individual, community, environmental and political levels. This lack of systematicity limits the understanding of the true scope of these initiatives. Therefore, the research highlights the need to develop robust assessment frameworks to measure real social impact and move towards more meaningful, inclusive and transformative youth participation in climate governance processes.