Tauranga has been selected among 300 cities worldwide to receive funding for youth-led climate projects.

The Bloomberg Philanthropies Youth Climate Action Fund gives each chosen city council US$50,000 ($74,550) for projects led by people aged 15-24.

Tauranga City Council hosted a celebration at the new library to recognise each project and the young people behind them.

Of the 20 Tauranga projects that applied, 10 were eligible and chosen by a panel to receive their share of the funding.

Each project had to have three people, be delivered in Tauranga, deliver clear climate or environmental benefits, demonstrate creativity and innovation and be achievable by April 15, 2027, for a local showcase.

Tauranga’s showcase will be held in April to highlight the projects’ success and impact.

University of Waikato Bachelor of Climate Change student Ava Meehan has received $7000 for her research project on climate preparedness for older residents.

Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale with University of Waikato Youth Action Climate Fund recipient Ava Meehan. Photo / Ayla Yeoman

“Our project is focusing on emergency management, helping elderly residents, specifically in retirement villages to feel more prepared in the case of an emergency where they have to evacuate.”

Meehan said the project would look into transport routes, civil defence and awareness.

Her team will visit retirement villages to speak with residents, hand out information packs and complete studies.

She said the team originally wanted to focus on people with disabilities. However, because of Tauranga’s ageing population, they changed the focus to retirement village residents and accessibility issues.

Meehan said the frequency and intensity of natural events would rise because of climate change and older people were vulnerable.

At the beginning and end of the project, the group would conduct surveys to show whether retirement village residents felt more prepared in an emergency.

“I’m just hoping that they feel a bit more at ease.”

Ōtūmoetai College Youth Climate Action Fund recipients Grace King, Ella Smith and Ella Wilce. Photo / Ayla Yeoman

Ōtūmoetai College student Ella Smith said her team was continuing a project that had existed at the school for 20 years.

The project aimed to restore the gully near the school and remove pest animals and plants.

“We have already been doing our removal of moth plants, and we’ve done rat trapping.

“This grant is going to go towards the training of 10 to 15 new students from our environment committee in the removal of specific pest species.”

She said the $8500 would also go towards pathway signs through the gully informing the public of plants they can help remove along their walk “like a scavenger hunt”.

Smith said the team had been working on its application throughout the school holidays and it was nice to see the hard work paying off.

“The project has been going for years and years, and I know teachers that have retired that worked on this.

“We are lucky enough to be at the crux of the project where we actually get to start seeing the change that’s happening that so many other people have put hours into creating.”

Mount Maunganui College student Sadie MacArthur said her team’s project would look into sea lettuce reuse for fertiliser and seagrass restoration.

Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale with Mount Maunganui College Youth Climate Action Fund recipients Sadie MacArthur and Courtney Dromgool. Photo / Ayla Yeoman

MacArthur said they were yet to determine details of their project, which received $8500.

They want to remove sea lettuce from the harbour, remove the salt content, dry it and test it in their horticulture area at school as a fertiliser.

“We’re going to be working with a scientist from the Bay of Plenty [regional] council, and he’ll teach us how to identify different seagrass pods.

“I’m very excited to work with the scientists and learn more about our area.”

University of Waikato Bachelor of Climate Change students Tiana Holland and Ayla Montgomerie said their project involved installing phone mounts in Mount Maunganui and other parts of Tauranga for people to take photos of coastal areas.

University of Waikato Youth Climate Action Fund recipients Tiana Holland and Ayla Montgomerie with Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale. Photo / Ayla Yeoman

The photos would be uploaded to a website where coastal scientists could use them as data.

Montgomerie said this would create photos for monitoring coastal erosion.

“It creates a little time lapse so that we can see how the coastline is changing and we can plan from there.”

Holland said they hoped to have two CoastSnap stations in Mount Maunganui by the April showcase.

She said they hoped for one on Mauao, but that would depend on it being open and another in Pilot Bay or Leisure Island.

Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale said he was excited about the April showcase to see what the groups had achieved and learned.

Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale announcing which projects received funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies' Youth Climate Action Fund. Photo / Ayla Yeoman

“It’s great to see the ideas of our young people coming through.

“We have got a fantastic mix of ideas and climate solutions from environmental restoration and coastal citizen science to recycling campaigns and active transport initiatives.”

He said Tauranga was one of two New Zealand cities to receive funding among the 300, and the top 250 would get funded next year.

“We want you guys to succeed, because if you do succeed, that means Tauranga succeeds, and this opportunity will be available to a new group of people next year.”

Climate Change adviser Clare Barton said the council needed a climate plan to be eligible for funding.

The council was accepted into the programme in April this year. The programme has been running for three years.

Of the 20 applicants, about 12 were eligible and presented to the panel before the final 10 were selected.

The projects needed support from a partner organisation, including Envirohub Bay of Plenty, Merivale Community Centre, Mount Maunganui College, Ōtūmoetai College and Pāpāmoa College.

The support organisations applied for the funding on behalf of the project groups.

Tauranga City Council arranged youth navigators to support the teams.

More than 300,000 young people across five continents have taken part in the fund to create more than 1600 green spaces, plant more than 1.8 million plants and 235,000 trees, develop nearly 5000 gardens, launch 268 composting stations and collect more than 405,000 pounds of trash and recyclables, the Bloomberg site said.

Ayla Yeoman is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based in Tauranga. She holds a Bachelor of Arts majoring in communications, politics and international relations from the University of Auckland, and has been a journalist since 2023.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.