Climate Cardinals Releases New Global Framework on Language and Climate Action
New York City, NY – January 19, 2026 — Climate Cardinals today announced the release of its first white paper, The Global Climate Language Access Framework, outlining how language barriers limit climate preparedness and exclude climate-vulnerable communities from climate decision-making.
Authored by Jackie Vandermel, Director of Research at Climate Cardinals, with support from the organization’s research team, the paper presents five policy recommendations for governments, multilateral institutions, and climate finance mechanisms to strengthen the effectiveness and equity of climate action.
As global leaders convene in Davos, the report highlights a persistent gap in climate governance. More than 7,000 languages are spoken worldwide, yet up to 98% of scientific research is produced in English, a language spoken by just 18% of the global population. As a result, critical information—such as disaster warnings, national adaptation plans, and policy updates—often fails to reach the communities most exposed to climate risk.
Drawing on case studies from the Horn of Africa to Indigenous territories in the Amazon, the report argues that language exclusion is not simply a communications challenge, but a structural barrier shaping who understands climate risks, who participates in solutions, and who receives life-saving information in time.
Key recommendations include:
Establishing a Climate Language Access Standard across publicly funded climate programs
Creating a Global Climate Language Access Fund to support translation, interpretation, and local-language climate media
Expanding multilingual early-warning systems for at-risk populations
Integrating local-language data into national climate planning and climate finance requirements
Developing an open climate lexicon and AI benchmarks for low-resource languages
“Language access is not a nice-to-have—it’s foundational to climate action that actually works,” said Hikaru Wakeel Hayakawa, Executive Director of Climate Cardinals. “If people can’t access climate information in a language they understand, they can’t prepare, participate, or protect their communities.”
The report advances Climate Cardinals’ mission to break language barriers in the climate movement so every community can take action and protect their future.
Access the summary here and the whitepaper here.
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Press Inquiries:
Hikaru Wakeel Hayakawa, Executive Director — [email protected]
Carl Philip Dybwad, Chief Operating Officer — [email protected]
Jackie Vandermel, Research Director — [email protected]
About Climate Cardinals
Climate Cardinals is the world’s largest youth-led climate education organization. We break language barriers in the climate movement so every community can take action and protect their future. With a volunteer community of 19,000+ youth, Climate Cardinals has translated 4M+ words of climate information into 105 languages for organizations like UNESCO, UNICEF, Yale, and the Italian Ministry of the Environment, led grassroots climate education initiatives at 85+ schools in 35 countries, and created multilingual climate action campaigns, reaching 19M+ people in 145 countries.
