Young people met with lawmakers on the opening day of the legislative session last week. Many of them are a part of the Climate Future Forum and want to see the state take more action on climate change.
At 18 years old, ʻIolani School senior Audrey Lin is already a familiar face around the Hawaiʻi State Capitol. She's been a member of the youth-led climate future forum for three years, pushing lawmakers to make climate a top issue.

"We developed a list of policy priorities which we're going to try to track and follow throughout the legislative session," Lin said.
This year, the forum is throwing its support behind efforts to get local foods on school menus.
"This session, we're really, really, really targeting bills like Farm to School is one of our big ones for our sustainable agriculture and food systems Policy Task Force, they really want bills that support locally sourced foods, especially in our public school cafeterias," she said.
Lin is hopeful Farm-to-School can make gains this session, but her three years in policy have taught her politics is all about playing the long game. That’s true of a topic near and dear to her heart.
"Carbon cashback. Essentially, it's a revenue-neutral manner to incentivize citizens to shift to renewable energy — carbon cashback might need a little bit more time to pass, just realistically," Lin said.
Even when progress is slow going, the young people with Climate Future Forum keep at it, they feel like lawmakers are listening.
Olivia Sousa is a junior at Le Jardin Academy. She points to their work with Rep. Amy Perruso's office on introducing a bill to promote climate literacy in schools.
"We talked to Rep. Perruso about climate literacy and ensured that there was this conversation that would keep going with her to support her through this and she can support us to develop our policy areas," Sousa said.