2027 Competition: NAVIGATING EL NIÑO

• HOW TO ENTER
• READ THE BRIEF
• RESOURCES
• FAQs
• JUDGING CRITERIA
• T&Cs

2027: NAVIGATING EL NIÑO

How I want world leaders to respond to our new extreme weather world

We want to hear from young people:

How should world leaders be responding to worsening extreme weather events like El Niño?

El Niño is a natural climate pattern that warms up parts of the Pacific Ocean. El Niño events typically take place every 2 to 7 years, alternating with a cooler pattern called La Niña.

Due to climate change, linked to rising greenhouse gases from things like burning fossil fuels, El Niño events are becoming stronger and more extreme.

Scientists are predicting more “Super El Niño” events in the years to come, unless we change course dramatically, and 2026-2027 is expected to be another severe one.

The University of Reading is the competition’s exclusive Higher Education Sponsor in 2026-27 and 2027-28

For the latest competition updates, please visit our website regularly and look out for our e-newsletters, which we email out to registered Teacher Champions. (Please check your spam folder if you think you might be missing one.)

2026: SUSTAINABILITY CULTURE

Congratulations to Jaisha Vipin (Cambridge High School – Abu Dhabi, UAE) for her 2026 Grand Prize winning song, Another Pattern:

Catch the highlights of the 2026 Debates & Awards:

In the TSL 2026 International Student Competition, we invited young people to explore SUSTAINABILITY CULTURE.

For example,

• what does “sustainability culture” (or its opposite) look like?
• Can you imagine a world in which sustainable cultural practices are the norm?
• How do our existing cultural practices need to change?
• Are there any examples of cultures, past or present, which we can learn from?

These are just a few examples of ways students could approach the topic, but all perspectives were welcome as long as the entries focused on SUSTAINABILITY CULTURE in some way. Creative and original submissions were strongly encouraged, and entries were welcome in a broad variety of media.

TSL wants to help young people develop a sense of agency and empowerment, by creating a safe and supportive space to explore their thoughts and feelings on SUSTAINABILITY CULTURE. We are open to accepting a very wide range of responses, e.g. artwork, music, video, news or opinion piece, podcast, vodcast, poem, essay, letter, story. There are few restrictions on the type of work which can be submitted. We want students to be open and creative when interpreting the theme (as long as their entries meet the submission criteria).

A Brief History of the International Dialogue on Sustainability Culture

Ten years ago, at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015, all 193 UN Member States signed up to the Sustainable Development Goals. The SDGs serve as a universal commitment to ending poverty, protecting the planet, and ensuring peace and prosperity for all people.

While the SDGs remain vital, the reality of achieving them is proving challenging for many countries around the world. Ten years, or two-thirds of the way, into the 15-year timeframe for delivering the SDGs, progress has proved inadequate, with only a fraction of the SDG targets on track, and many goals stalled or regressing.

In 2022, at a UNESCO summit in Mexico, over 150 States adopted an ambitious Declaration for Culture, recognising that it was time to unleash the potential of culture for sustainable development. Today, Ministers of Culture from around the world are calling for culture to become a stand-alone goal in the post-2030 international development agenda, and a follow-up summit, the World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development – MONDIACULT 2025, was recently held in Barcelona, Spain.

How is culture linked to achieving, or failing to achieve, the UN Sustainable Development Goals?

The graphic below shows just some of the many ways that culture, sustainable development and the SDGs are linked (Source: UNESCO – Time to unleash the  potential of culture for sustainable development):

• We're pleased to announce the 2026 International Student Competition results
• Download your 2026 Competition certificates

2025: ECO-ANXIETY

Michelle Amadiegwu – THERE’S NO PLANET B – TSL International Student Competition – Grand Prize Winner

Michelle Amadiegwu – THERE’S NO PLANET B – Music Video

Do Dinh Nhat Vuong – VOICE FROM AN 8 YEAR OLD CITIZEN OF VIETNAM – Runner Up

In 2025, in celebration of the 15^th year of the International Student Competition, we were excited to invite students to share their original, creative and expressive responses to the theme, From Eco-Anxiety to Eco Action & Empowerment.

Eco-anxiety refers to negative emotional responses arising from the environmental and climate crisis. A 2024 United Nations report says that eco-anxiety is an ‘emergency crisis hidden in plain sight’ and is likely to have a massive impact on the world’s children and youth. Recent global surveys have indicated that over 50% of young people experience eco-anxiety and are worried about environmental and climate change, with many reporting feelings of sadness, anxiousness, anger, powerlessness, helplessness and guilt. Such responses are natural, and many believe these feelings can be channelled to help encourage engagement, understanding and action at an individual and group level, as demonstrated by the recent rise in youth engagement and action over the last few years.

TSL wants to help young people develop a sense of agency, empowerment and hope for solutions and action, by creating a safe and supportive space to explore moving beyond feelings of eco-anxiety, to positive engagement.