The Global Young Greens were established in the year 2007 by a team of like-minded young people from all over the world while attending the World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya. The establishment of GYG also served as the first GYG Congress. The subsequent congresses were in Berlin in 2010 and in Dakar in 2012.

The Global Young Greens is an emerging youth-led organization supporting and uniting the efforts of young people from a green-alternative spectrum around the world. It works towards (1) ecological sustainability, (2) social justice, (3) grassroots democracy and (4) peace.