Bonn: YOUNGO, the Official Children and Youth Constituency to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), has been participating throughout the 58th Meeting of the Subsidiary Bodies (SB58) to the UNFCCC held here till June 15 to advocate for immediate action to achieve climate justice and to ensure that the voices and concerns of youth worldwide are integrated into the outcomes of the negotiations.
Over the course of the conference, which began on Monday, YOUNGO members will engage with stakeholders, take part in actions, and push for transformative and innovative policies to ensure those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change are not left behind in their fight for a sustainable and livable future.
YOUNGO firmly believes that all registered participants must have equitable access to resources and visa support to engage in UNFCCC processes to ensure that those coming from most marginalised communities are fairly represented and that the voices of youth and children are meaningfully included in the negotiations.
For years, young people have faced administrative visa challenges hindering their full participation. As reported by Klima delegation, at least 70 youth delegates have faced issues in their visa applications this year.
They urge for greater visa support in the future ensuring the accessibility of UNFCCC processes to all children and youth. "Getting here has not been easy for many of us; and despite over three decades of SBs, young colleagues, notably from Africa, are persistently denied visas. We implore you to tackle this inaccessibility, which is within your power to resolve," said Ishraq Imadeldin Abdalla from Sudan in her delivery of the YOUNGO intervention at the Opening Plenary of SB58.
The re-activated YOUNGO COI WG will prioritise building awareness of conflict of interest as an issue, scrutinizing the ongoing observer review processes by the UNFCCC Secretariat, encouraging parties to adopt their own conflict of interest politicizes for their delegations, and working across constituencies to build a broad civil society coalition on the issue.
The need to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is evident and as urgent as ever.
YOUNGO calls upon parties to assume an efficient and solutions-oriented approach that will effectively ensure the inclusion of vulnerable and marginalised communities most in need of rapid mitigation measures.
YOUNGO calls for a dedicated energy track within UN climate negotiations, as an outcome of the Mitigation Work Programme, and a full phasing out of fossil fuels towards renewable energy sources. Almost eight years ago, the parties to the Paris Agreement agreed on implementing a Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA).
With the yearly $100 billion of climate finance hopefully delivered from this year on, there are no hurdles to agree on the goal with specific targets and indicators focusing on youth and children as a vulnerable group.
The YOUNGO Adaptation Working Group has been actively lobbying on this front and the latest out of its two submissions on building a youth-focused target under the GGA with possible indicators to measure these targets has been included for consideration for the 6th GGA workshop.
At COP27, major steps have been taken by parties to address loss and damage through the establishment of a dedicated finance facility.
YOUNGO has been ardently lobbying for loss and damage finance through both its interventions and its actions, and calls on the parties to act with urgency and with the understanding of the magnitude of the loss and damage that exists today in the operationalization of the finance facility and in the delivery of concrete outcomes at COP28. YOUNGO will continue amplifying the voices of those communities most at risk from climate change impacts and most in need of urgent and immediate financial assistance. —IANS
