Ms. Helen Watts


Executive Director

Student Energy

Helen is the Executive Director of Student Energy, the world’s largest youth-led organization mobilizing 100,000 young people in 130 countries for a just, sustainable, and equitable energy transition. Helen is a Forbes 30 Under 30 lister, Corporate Knights 30 Under 30, and a recognized clean energy and intergenerational equity advocate. 

Advocating for youth inclusion at every level of decision-making processes, Helen leads Student Energy’s global vision with the support of over 60 partners and stakeholders in energy, climate, and development. Helen co-leads the Solutions Movement, a UN-Energy Compact designed to scale youth-led, community clean energy projects and workforce training, addressing forecasted skills gaps and project deployment needs to address SDG 7 within the decade. Helen initiated the development of the first Global Youth Energy Outlook, gathering 41,000 youth perspectives from 190 countries on the energy transition by 2030, and co-founded Greenpreneurs, a startups incubator that supported 55 youth climate social enterprises in its four years running.

Helen has been participating in climate marches and advocating for the rights of people and planet since 2015, attending five UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COPs), raising funds for fourteen youth delegations to conferences, and supporting the success of three International Student Energy Summits (SES) spanning three continents. 

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