香港六合彩中特网

鈥淏lah, Blah, Blah鈥�. In her speech at the Youth4Climate summit in Milan, Italy, this was how youth climate activist to take action to address climate change. In November 2021, while high-level dignitaries and climate negotiators gathered to strike an ambitious climate deal at the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, Greta鈥檚 palpable sense of distrust, disillusionment, and dashed hopes was widely shared and echoed by young people around the world. As we sink deeper and more inexorably into the climate crisis with each passing day, young people are left wondering whether the current system of climate governance can truly accommodate their aspirations and deliver for their futures.聽

When it comes to existing global institutions and mechanisms under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), young people鈥檚 trust is in short supply. To a significant extent, this is because of the almost insurmountable challenges young people face when seeking to make a meaningful impact on international climate negotiations. As many youth climate leaders attending COP26 recognised, securing funding and accreditation to access the negotiations in the blue zone, a difficult task in itself, does not necessarily translate into actual policy change. Specifically, the UNFCCC process is a party-driven one, with national delegations ultimately determining the outcome of the negotiations. Moreover, inter-party bargaining takes place in a context of highly unequal power dynamics. For example, at COP26, the highly pertinent and urgent issue of Loss and Damage financing was confronted in the Global North, while other key players threatened to derail the negotiations with . Within this highly politicised context, the voices of young people 鈥� especially those from the Global South 鈥� are often drowned out.

While there was no shortage of desire by politicians to engage in photo ops with young people, effective youth participation in the negotiations face multiple constraints: intervention opportunities by the youth constituency (and civil society more broadly) are extremely limited; the topics open for discussion by young people remain limited to 鈥榮ofter鈥� issues such as climate education and empowerment as opposed to more substantial ones such as climate finance and the energy transition;聽and young people have next to zero say in the final text of the . Furthermore, from my personal experience, some national delegations refuse to engage with young people at all, and when they do, seek to dismiss us with tokenistic gestures without a proper conversation about our priorities and proposals. On the rare occasions when young people are provided with a role in national delegations, which should in fact be a mainstream practice, their ability to truly reflect the voices and perspectives of youth faces additional hurdles. Belying high-level proclamations that global climate governance seeks to protect the next generation from the disproportionate impacts of climate change, negotiation rooms at COP26 remained dominated by old men in grey suits.聽

Even as we express disappointment at both the processes and outcomes of international climate negotiations, young climate leaders have not been paralysed into inaction. During COP26, about 100,000 people took part in , and youth representatives within the conference venue similarly engaged in demonstrations to ramp up pressure on Loss & Damage negotiations. In the UK (and elsewhere), young people are also to reduce individual carbon footprints and combat climate change. As the next generation increasingly wakes up to the realities of the impending climate catastrophe, the international community must support youth climate leadership by incorporating youth in all levels and stages of decision-making, while at the same time recognising the (less than ideal) conditions of youth participation in climate negotiations and avoiding the glamorisation of youth.

To be fair, Articles 63 - 65 of the Glasgow Climate Pact offer a promising start to address youth involvement in decision-making processes as a serious consideration, and go beyond the lip service paid to intergenerational equity in its pre-ambulatory articles. That said, much more needs to be done to restore the trust of young people in climate governance, pursue meaningful reform of UNFCCC processes to prevent youth-washing and tokenism, and provide youth with the avenues through which their impact can be successfully realised. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, governments and the private sector must heed the call of young people to treat the climate crisis as a symptom of the broader socio-political crisis, and engage in a radical reconceptualisation of our relationship with the world.聽

As COP27 in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, draws closer, it is our collective expectation that world leaders will not be recycling the same old empty pledges from COP26, and we will not have to repeat the same demands from our . If world leaders can keep their promises, there is no reason why young people cannot be partners of constructive change. But if they prove to fall short or fail to try at all, young people will not tolerate more lies and hypocrisy. No more 鈥淏lah, Blah, Blah鈥�: the time for action 鈥�聽and implementation聽鈥� is now.聽

Photo: YOUNGO (Youth Constituency of UNFCCC) presenting the Global Youth Statement to global climate policymakers and high-level dignitaries at COP26. Credits: YOUNGO Communications Team.聽