Zara Horton: UNITE 2030

Alongside her studies, she is a paralegal at an environment and planning law firm, a Research Assistant at the UTS Jumbunna Institute of Indigenous Education and Research, and a UTS FASS Ambassador. 

Zara recently returned from New York where she participated in UNITE 2030, a young changemakers program, having been selected as one of 100 participants from over 6,000 applications. Zara and her team worked on a project aiming to reduce the incidence and impact of wildfires.

Their pitch was selected as the winner, and she was invited to return to New York to pitch to UN officials at the UN Headquarters in NYC. We chat to Zara on all things Law, Communication, UNITE 2030, and what’s next for her. 

What are you studying and why? 

I am currently in my 5th year of a combined Bachelor of Laws/Communications (Social and Political Sciences) and last year I completed a Diploma of Languages (French Language and Culture). I expect to complete my double degree at the end of 2026, and I intend to do honours in either Law or Communications.

The law plays such an intrinsic role in shaping our world and it can be such an important tool for social change that I thought it would be a great degree to study to make impactful change.

I decided to study Communication (Social and Political Sciences) alongside my Law degree as I wanted to have a deep understanding of the social and political mechanisms which influence the world and how they play a role in climate change. Law and politics are a great combination to study as both fields influence the other. 

Why UTS? 

I chose UTS because it offers very practical skills with the degree. Within my Communication degree, I like how each subject allows you to explore a different research methodology to gain primary research data. For example, I conducted a participant observation of an environmental justice group to explore and understand how their ideology informed their strategy to create change.

This hands-on way of studying and learning really drew me to UTS. I’m also excited to do my professional placement with my Social and Political Sciences degree in Semester 2 2025. I think it’s a great opportunity to get experience and work out what field you want to go into. 

UNITE 2030 

UNITE 2030 is a non-profit dedicated to empowering young people to develop solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems. It is affiliated with the UN through partnerships during Global Goals Week. After seeing their programs advertised on the UTS Law student noticeboard, Zara formed a team with fellow students Maggie Rodwell, Alex Quezada, Carol Lin and Elsa Marks, bringing together their expertise in wildfire management, environmental science, health, communications, law, and sustainability solutions marketing.

Our project, 'The Ember Co-Op', addressed protecting vulnerable communities from wildfires, which are increasingly more prevalent and severe due to climate change. Our solution was a community co-operative owned non-profit which utilises circular economy practices and community volunteers to undergo large-scale fuel management in surrounding forests of the community.

Fuel management is the process of removing dead forest material, or 'fuel' to fires, and the removal of this has been shown to substantially decrease the frequency and intensity of wildfires when implemented. For the circular economy aspect of the model, we aim to recycle and repurpose the dead forest material into mulch and other material for community purposes.

Prior to implementing the project, we will consult first with the local First Nations People so that Free, Prior and Informed Consent is obtained and ensure that their interests are protected. While fuel management exists, it is not being done at the scale that it needs to be and there are many communities vulnerable to wildfires as a result.

Our project is community centred, and we believe that communities will feel empowered to engage in work that will help protect their homes, local wildlife, friends and family. 

UNITE 2030’s Innovation Lab, Camp 2030

In September 2024 I travelled to New York to attend UNITE 2030’s Innovation Lab, Camp 2030, to work on solutions to UN Sustainable Development Goals. 100 young changemakers from around the world (from over 40 countries) were at the camp who were selected from over 6000 applicants.

The camp involved getting into small teams to work on a specific UN Sustainable Development Goal (SGD), such as gender equality and quality education, and develop solutions to an identified problem within that goal area that could be practically implemented. This involved collaboration and research to determine what gaps existed in these problems so that we could fill them with our solution.

My team worked on the SDG #13 Climate Action. Our task was to develop a 3-minute pitch on our solution, based on our week of research and innovative thinking, which we would present to judges which were experts working in these areas. We received feedback from mentors, who were sustainability experts, prior to pitching our solution.

It was amazing to meet such inspiring and driven young changemakers from over 40 countries and to learn about other people’s cultures at our time at camp. There were so many opportunities to connect throughout the camp, and a highlight was culture night where people shared their cultural food, traditional clothes and dances to everyone.

I left the camp feeling very hopeful for the future and encouraged to keep working on tackling climate change with a new network of inspirational young people from around the world. 

Changemakers Summit

On the final day, we travelled back to New York City to attend the Changemakers Summit, a UN Global Goals Week Event, and we pitched our solution to judges. Our solution was the winning solution out of 16 teams, and it was commended for its practicability and ability to be scaled to communities around the world.

Following our final pitch at the event, the top three teams, including ours, were invited by the Head of UN Chief Communications & Marketing Officer, David Ohana, to go back to the UN in New York later in the year to present their ideas to UN officials. 

The UN officials we presented to included Paloma Escudero, leading UN Women Global Communications and Advocacy team, Jayashri Wyatt, Chief of Education Outreach at the United Nations and Martina Donlon, who is Chief of the Climate Section of the UN Department of Global Communications.

After the presentation of our project, we engaged in meaningful discussion with the officials and received feedback on our idea to incorporate in our project. It was great to make these connections and receive advice from these extremely experienced and influential people in the UN space. 

The UTS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences funded the cost of the 5-day camp in September 2024, Camp 2030 which I was extremely grateful for. After my team was invited to UN Headquarters in New York to present our project to UN officials, FASS funded my trip back to New York in December 2024 and it was a great experience to be able to represent UTS at the UN. 

What’s next? 

I’m extremely excited to continue working on getting this wildfire prevention project off the ground in the coming year with my group members.

We are currently conducting interviews in Salmon Arm, in British Columbia, Canada with local government officials, community groups, the local First Nations community (who are the Sécwepemc First Nations People) as well as forestry and circular economy experts to understand how to implement our project and complement existing work being done in the wildfire sector. 

Our project is designed to be scaled to other communities around the world, which will depend on how our project goes in this town. While we anticipate that our project may have barriers, my team is very committed to overcoming them and we are excited to see where this goes. 

I’m currently working as a Legal Research Assistant and Paralegal and will work on this project alongside my university studies. I hope to use the experience gained from my Law/Communications degree and the environmental law field to develop and implement our project in collaboration with my teammates who are also bringing experience from different industry areas relating to the environment.