Washington: So, what does climate change mean to you? This is the question Connect4Climate (C4C) and MTV will be asking young people from around the world at the launch of "Voices4Climate", a new global photo, video, and music video competition focused on amplifying the voices of youth on the issue of climate change. The launch for the competition will be held tonight, June 28, at an event titled “Connecting for Climate: Technology, Creativity, and Action” at the Newseum in Washington, DC.

Creative young people from around the world will be invited to share or sing their personal stories about climate change for the chance to win prizes and receive international recognition at the December 2012 UN Conference on Climate Change in Doha. Music video winners will spend a day with MTV editors in New York or London and have their music videos featured on MTV’s ‘Voices’ platform.

“We all have within ourselves the power to be catalysts for change,” said World Bank Managing Director and Keynote Speaker, Caroline Anstey. “This is precisely the idea this competition is getting at. We don’t need - and can’t afford - to wait for others to get things done. Change can begin with just one person – all it takes is you.”

"This competition is a great way to use the artistic talents of young people around the world to communicate on such an important issue,” said John Jackson, Vice President of Social Responsibility at MTV Networks International, who will be on hand to kick-off the competition. “MTV is very pleased to be able to encourage entries and to provide creative assistance to the winners."

Juliani, Kenya’s tree-planting hip-hop star, who will perform at the event, characterizes his passion for climate change in this way, "When it comes to sustainable development, green economy, those are big words... you have to break them down into something people understand...  I do this through my music.”

The new competition builds on the success of C4C’s 2011 Africa regional competition. That competition drew over 700 photo and video submissions from every country on the African continent and awarded prizes to 54 winners from 20 African countries.

Launched by the World Bank, the Italian Ministry of Environment, and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in collaboration with more than 140 global partners in September 2011, C4C is a global partnership program dedicated to climate change communications. Through social media and the web, C4C helps to give voice to local stakeholders that have stories to tell about climate change. In just several months, C4C has created a Facebook community of over 286,000 followers that engage in thousands of interactions per day. Across multiple social media platforms, C4C’s weekly online reach is, on average, between 5 and 6 million.