<p>Climate change poses significant mental health risks for young people, with literature suggesting mental ill-health in the current generation of young people could rise as the climate crisis evolves, necessitating the need for both continued research and action. Drawing on our perspectives as Generation Z lived experience researchers - grounded in clinical practice, intersectional youth mental health advocacy, global health, and community development, we reflect on the dual pressures young people face - praised for their ambition and burdened with the responsibility of addressing these problems, while simultaneously denied the power to meaningfully enact their devised solutions.</p><p>Informed by emerging literature and our lived experience, we propose a Generation Z utopia (‘Z-topia’), our conceptual vision of what young people can and should be empowered to achieve, through the intersections between imagination, reflection and decisive action. In Z-topia, climate-related distress is recognised not as individual pathology, but as a collective, emotional and rational response to ecological crisis. Z-topia imagines young people empowered to design and lead transformative climate action, embedding climate action into everyday life and fostering a reciprocal relationship between people and the planet. This vision reframes youth climate distress as a foundation for agency and social change, offering a pathway towards more inclusive, sustainable, and mentally healthy futures.</p>