In light of the current environmental crisis and pressing climate change issue, the need for our societies to foster sustainable development and to develop a climate change response, i.e. climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts, is pressing. Leadership is understood as having a key role to play in this respect, as it can both guide through change and encourage behavioural changes toward more sustainable practices. There is increasing consensus in critical leadership studies on the need for leadership to be exerted and defined differently, if aiming to foster sustainability. In particular, the traditional individual-hero-centred approaches to leadership implying vertical hierarchy are deemed ill-fitted, as they fail to include relevant stakeholders. Young people are key stakeholders when it comes to climate change, yet they stay marginalised in climate change politics despite their unprecedented mobilisation for the climate through strikes and protests. Research on youth’s views and understandings of leadership in the context of climate change remains scarce, whereas their views have high social relevance and potential for revealing unique perspectives. This study sought to explore young climate activists’ conceptualisations of leadership and leadership beliefs in relation to the climate change response. Results evidence that young climate activists’ have diverse, nuanced, and complex conceptualisations of leadership resembling elements from a broad range of leadership theories. Yet, young climate activists also hold unique understandings of leadership, notably as they emphasise its accessibility. When it comes to their leadership beliefs, young climate activists believe leadership types implying shared responsibility, inclusiveness and participation enhance the potential of leadership to contribute to the achievement of the climate change response. Conversely, they perceive leadership types entailing individual, dominant and authoritarian leaders as detrimental for leadership effectiveness in relation to the climate change response.