Committed, inspiring and bold climate leaders from all over the world will meet during the UN High-Level General Assembly week to discuss youth-led engagement and solutions in climate actions
All over the world, young people are fighting for the right to a livable future.
Despite famines, droughts, and rising sea levels, they refuse to give up on what older generations have promised for decades but not delivered; meaningful action to address a heating planet and advance climate justice.
Against all odds
Today’s young generations are carrying a full backpack: they are still bearing the scars of a global financial crisis and enduring the impacts of an entrenched and inherited climate crisis.
With these words the Generation17 Dialogue was started by Nadine Khaouli, a 26-year-old activist from Lebanon fighting to end poverty, and a mobilizer of civic action in response to the Beirut blast in 2020. Nadine and Oğuz Ergen, a young advocate from Turkey who rallies NGOs, academia and government together to address the climate crisis and protect the coastal Aegean region, were masters of ceremony of the virtual Generation17 Dialogue.
Record-breaking heat waves. Deadly storms. Mega-droughts on every continent.
As the impacts of the climate crisis only grow, countries are urgently pursuing all avenues to realize their climate ambition. A key step is putting younger people at the forefront of climate action, and helping them realize their full potential.
When Nelson Ole Reiyia saw a new fence being constructed near his home in the Maasai Mara, he was worried. Maasai Mara, which means “spotted” landscape, with acacia and thorn bushes dotted across the open savanna, is home to the Indigenous Maasai people of Kenya. The pastoralist community depend on their animals and the land for their livelihoods. As new fences began appearing across the landscape, Reiyia sprang into action.
April 7, 2022
By Neeshad Shafi, Cofounder of Arab Youth Climate Movement Qatar
I was thrilled to attend last week’s first-ever Middle East and North Africa Regional Climate Week (MENACW 2022), a promising momentum-builder ahead of this year’s COP27 UN climate conference in Egypt and next year’s COP28 in the United Arab Emirates. Hosted in Dubai, MENA Climate Week provided a unique opportunity to raise the profile of the Arab States region as a global climate risk hotspot and a top priority for climate adaptation investments as well as an essential partner in the global clean energy transition.
I was one of more than 4000 participants who attended the event, which comprised over 200 in-person sessions and many more online. Some 500 speakers from 147 countries flocked to MENA Climate Week to share their visions of a sustainable way forward for the region. Conversations included participants from the host government of the UAE and many other policymakers, private sector leaders, academic experts, young climate champions, and civil society groups.
On International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples an activist shares her perspective on the climate crisis.
When you think of solutions to the climate crisis, you may immediately think of modern technologies, like solar and wind energy; but Indigenous communities have been leading on and perfecting natural solutions for centuries simply through their way of life. Indigenous peoples share a deep and spiritual connection with the natural world, making them the best stewards of the areas that they have inhabited for generations.
The climate crisis, and our collective response to it, will define the life of every young person around the world. According to a study from 2021, many of them report feeling sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless, or even guilty about climate change.
As the world works to end the inequalities of Indigenous Peoples, it is important to recognize their challenges and celebrate their knowledge and wisdom.
Oğuz Ergen was shocked when he realized the fish population in Turkish seas had receded so much since his childhood.
“I lived in many different locations in Turkey due to my father’s profession, and I particularly loved fishing in Gallipoli where we caught many fish,” he said, about an area along the Aegean sea. After we moved to Izmir, I saw things change significantly. Before when I went fishing, I used to catch ten fish. But in Izmir now, I hardly catch one. I thought there must be some distress in the seas and started investigating.”
Today, our world is 1.1°C warmer than it was in the pre-industrial era, and failure to act urgently could possibly result in increases of 1.5°C-2°C between 2026 and 2042. Climate change poses a serious risk to the fundamental rights of people of every age. Extreme weather such as droughts, floods and heatwaves, and their effects of food and water insecurity, livelihood losses, famines, and wildfires exacerbate inequalities and disproportionately affect vulnerable groups, among them young people and children.