Welcome everyone!

We are very pleased to moderate this week's conversation in Room 2 with a focus on youth engagement in NDC formulation and implementation on behalf of the Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth (OSGEY). My name is Vugar Allahverdiyev and I work as Program Management Officer at OSGEY. This week I will be joined by my amazing colleague Margaret Ferrato, before we pass the baton onto Chiagozie Udeh & Katharina Davis 

We look forward to receiving your feedback, ideas and questions on what are some ways, good practices and recommendations for enhancing youth participation in NDCs. Above you will find some guiding questions to kickstart the conversation. Your feedback will be synthesized in weekly reports that will be used by UNDP to fine-tune their programmatic work on youth and climate change.

Vladislav Kaim I believe you had some ideas.

Lets get the discussions started!

Good European evening everyone and thank you for a great opportunity to be here and contribute! I am Vladislav Kaim (you can just call me Vlad), Young European Ambassador, member of YOUNGO BLT and UNCTAD Youth Network. Following up on Vugar Allahverdiyev 's comments, I was thinking about an idea that would provide some interlinkages between the questions put forward in this track and a solution that will provide meaningful positive spillover effects for youth welfare and development and climate action beyond the NDC enhancement as well.

While enhancement and meaningful fulfillment of the NDCs it is critically important, they will reshape not just out environment but our societies, completely changing the world of work. Youth today nearly everywhere in the world are both concerned about the future of our planet and their employment perspectives. As these concerns proliferate, there is potential to address both issues in a synergetic way.

In my opinion, UNFCCC and UNDP should consider establishing a Green Youth Guarantee Mechanism as part of the NDC enhancement process. It will be a multilateral, inclusive mechanism where representatives of youth, marginalized groups, CSOs, international/multilateral instituions, private sector, academia, state and local actors work on establishing national frameworks that will provide a pipeline from the educational sphere to the job market for young people, especially from vulnerable communities, where they would be able to get marketable skills to find themselves quickly in green industries - anything from solar panel installation to specialists in green bonds issuance to adaptation&conservation etc. One can ask, of course - why this should be part of NDC enhancement, why youth should press for it? My response to this is that it serves multiple problems by giving youth jobs, giving them marketable skills and building capacity, nudging them into the sectors of green economy, and satisfying their sense of purpose by pursuing a career that contributes to making our planet a more livable place.

Because ultimately NDCs at their core can't be only about emissions, as they have multiple repercussions. NDCs will not become reality without meaningful shifts in green economy, those, in their turn, won't come true if there are not enough qualified specialists to step up. And without coherent, coordinated efforts to address that potential bright green specialists of the future, today's youth, will fill the cohorts of global precariat and entrench global inequalities with everything this entails for the future of green economy and fight against climate change.

Such a mechanism would serve as a great addendum to the NDC process and will monitorize that a meaningful fulfillment of the NDCs has positive social and economic consequences for our generation. Ideally, such a mechanism should be in place for every Party, but even having regional editions of the Mechanism (Global Compact on Migration style) or plurilateral formats (WTO style).

Of course, I am open for discussing hashing out of any potential details for it, as well as its general relevance :)

Have a good day/evening/night wherever you are! And I hope this will be a good conversation starter :)

Thank you, dear Vugar Allahverdiyev  and Vladislav Kaim! Very interesting input, Vlad. Tagging my colleagues Cassie Flynn Rebecca Carman and Angelica Shamerina who may share further thoughts on these points. 

On shifting to the green economy, this is indeed key... and even more so in the context of the design and implementation of sustainable post-COVID19 recovery. Many governments around the world are already rolling out stimulus policies to help their national economies recover from the crisis. These policies will also determine long-term progress on climate change and development. If these policies promote fossil fuels, they’ll lock in future carbon pollution, but if they promote cleaner energy and meaningful promote young people's participation and support youth leadership, then they could truly set the world on a sustainable pathway to zero emissions.

On this important issue of sustainable recovery, we would also like to seize the opportunity to invite you all to join the #Youth4ClimateLive Series episode on "Driving Sustainable Recovery" taking place on Friday 24 July, with Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator, Frans Timmermans, VP of the European Commission and amazing young leaders, co-organized with the UN Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, Italy (PreCOP26) and Connect4climate (World Bank).

Thank you for the invitation Noella!

I had honor to speak to the EVP Timmermans on June 23rd, at the European Youth Energy Day. He then emphasized that the Eastern Neighborhood of the EU matters a lot for the success of the European Green Deal, as the ambition for the European Commission is a carbon neutral continent, not union, until 2050. He is a very committed policymaker, and it's very encouraging.

When it comes to recovery plans, I bet you have seen the data at the Energy Policy Tracker that was launched on July 15 - it's very not encouraging when it comes to the fossil fuel subsidies in COVID stimulus packages, both in absolute terms and relative to the subsidies for renewables.

Hello, Room 2! I'm very pleased to be co-moderating the discussion this week with my colleague Vugar Allahverdiyev on behalf of the Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth (OSGEY). 

Vladislav Kaim thank you for kickstarting our discussion on youth engagement in NDC formulation and implementation with your suggestion of a Green Youth Guarantee Mechanism. And Noella Richard  I appreciate you sharing information about the upcoming #Youth4ClimateLive event, which we're so excited to host this Friday! For those of you who'd like to register, you can do so at Youth4Climate.Live

Any feedback on Vlad's suggestion? Or other input? As Vugar mentioned, you can find some guiding questions at the top of this page to kickstart the conversation. 

Paloma Costa I believe you had some ideas...

Greetings all,

Thanks, Vugar Allahverdiyev, Vladislav Kaim, and Noella Richard I agree with the logic of safeguarding youth capacity building for the green economy, Vlad gave a great example. We should also use these international agreements to foster multilateralism and institute new mechanisms for young people. 
Noella your point on fixed contracts that commit national plans to fossil fuels we need to bring the youth more into this conversation. Do they wish to use such fuels considering the costs and access? Do they have alternative views that promote a greener energy system? With COVID19 we have an opportunity to restructure these archaic and rigid institutions at all levels. 

Adding to the fifth point on considering the NDC revisions and ways to include youth, I am of the view that its paramount to integrate young people as a target area within the NDC. As an example being a member of the Namibian National Climate Change Committee we often report annually on all activities we completed. However, It's from the National Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan that has some activities for youth. 
Creating a space for young people as a key activity most member states might then avail funding or seek for more if not available to empower young people to take action., The only caveat can be that the responsible entities assigned the task may not always have the necessary capacity. The few footloose independent formations of young people are then left out. 

I am thus fully convinced this is the first and most pertinent step, not to throw youth as a cross-cutting issue under other activities. Alternatively, allow them a space that considers the principle of respective capacity and responsibility as they do so within their means. It can also give us a better idea of what youth are doing in different countries and have an international dashboard that we can further integrate at the international level.

Hello everyone! Yes I do Margaret Ferrato! Thank you so much for inviting me into this important conversation! (: You see, I really appreciated Vladislav Kaim  idea. I think it is revolutionary to create new ways on social interacting system. But I do have some points to raise when it comes to thinking of implementing such idea and promoting green jobs in my region.. The first point to raise has to do with the fact that every living thing in this planet needs to feed itself to continue alive.. So by ensuring food security, this is a necessity to stay alive! And all of this thinking takes us to the realization that if we are going to build a path for recovery, we need first to ensure fundamental things such as food security, health and education. The second point I want to raise is some amazing solution I am seeing happen with my own eyes: During this pandemic, my youth indigenous fellows companions from the Xingu river basin (in Mato Grosso and Pará) realized that they had to protect their families and communities in case of extreme situations like the one we are facing right now, where they are self isolated inside their communities, as they are a vulnerable group, with risk of extinction if COVID enters in their community living way. So no one can enter or get out to protect the entirely ethnic group, ensuring that they could stay safe in their territories. And thinking on ways to overcome this given situation, where most of the times they can no longer keep working or complement their income with other activities (that they usually do),  they were telling me that they started a lot of plantations (lots of youth plantations initiatives) with seeds that they just recollected - just like the Yarang woman from Brazil, to firstly improve and guarantee their food security. So.. they were telling me how this have been really good for them, as they are passing much more time with the elders, learning about their traditional foods, culture, language and medicines and how this is helping them on engaging other youth around there! This is SO MUCH GOOD NEWS! Otherwise, they could be going to paths of alcoholism (common around youth in those communities). And for me it feels so inspiring to hear that they are finding their way back by reconnecting with their ancestors culture, using traditional tools and knowledge to plant without destroying or damaging the environment, understanding that this simple act of resilience helps guaranteeing our Forests up, as they have a meaningful and bigger reason to keep staying inside their territories (and this is what often prevents illegal activities within the forest - indigenous presence), which also helps all planet on balancing the climate crisis equation (Forests!). And they are doing all of this while they are raising awareness among themselves, on climate changes, alcoholism, garbage, activism and other matters, and, of course, ensuring food security and sovereignty for their families and communities. Sometimes I like to think to myself I helped planting this seed ideas during our exchanges (such as the one on the mark of the Encontro do Piaraçu, a call from Chief Raoni Metuktire that united over 400 indigenous leaders, youth and woman on his land and I was luckly invited to be there s2) hahaha but this is all exceptional ideas of them. And it gets better.. now that they are seeing the fruits of their plantations, they are thinking bigger! As they grow health and good (real) food, with NONE pesticide (common here), they were thinking on starting 1) Seeds exchanges with the communities and groups on the region (so they encourage others, guarantee a diversity of options of foods - food sovereignty - and are able to exchange knowledge with others - fortifying the union of the groups there - necessary and on finding the resilient foods); 2) A cooperative led by the youth there, so they can circulate and exchange products with direct buyer-producer connection, through safe spaces and with the help of partner organizations, creating a valuable chain for their products, that comes with the learning with the elders (which engages them to pursue their traditional habits, language, culture and medicines), by earning incomes (which guarantees that they don't need, in any case and specially during the pandemic, to leave their lands - engaging and inspiring other youths to do the same), by ensuring food security and sovereignty for them and others beyond their lands... When I hear things like this, I can really believe we will have a wonderful future to come. Where my food will be coming all, easily, directly from the communities around my area to my table (indigenous groups, quilombolas, small agricultural family farmers and similars). That's why I've been helping them to take this idea to the next level! Thinking of this as a long term idea of cooperative youth plantations that encourages and teaches other young people on the same path s2. This lead us to the third point I wanted to raise: regarding all of that I just told, when we think of green jobs, we have to decolonize our imaginary, we have to think out of the box and not only on city contexts. As they say, the pandemic reminds them of the histories of first contact with non-indigenous of their grandfathers and fathers. So, as they did - we have to do the same, to recover we need to unite all of ourselves - just like the experience with Forest People Alliance. and push for policies that reflects this unity! Going to paths of valuable chains, where we understand value on things for how much life they represent and flower on the way, with forest peoples economy experience on connecting forest products with people on the cities. This is a valuable alternative, inclusive, for carbon markets. We can not go anymore on paths with big subsides to big supermarkets and lots of pesticide-filled products, that puts all of us in vulnerable health position (but specially the ones that lives in the frontlines close to these pesticide monocultures and now are facing in their bodies these health issues). This subsides need to change and go to valuable chains, where the economy can circulate making connections between city/camp and communities. This markets that receives the subsides now are the same ones that destroys the rivers (ruining our collective clean waters) and the lands with lots of deforestation and other ilegal activities.. it is a death chain. I respect so much the indigenous people because even with this living nightmare, they resist. They resist and still come up with such good ideas. That's why it is crucial to guarantee that this young people remains and don't need to migrate off of their lands, fruit of an extensive fight for rights and of resistance of their elders.. And, for this to happen, they need to have ways to keep living inside their lands. So we need to put this experiences into account and push for alternatives that also includes this realities. Sometimes I feel we get to much far of things on the ground. We are now on a moment that we can have a huge impact on changing habits and human behavior, by guaranteeing our collective social-environment.

Thank you Margaret Ferrato and Vugar Allahverdiyev for the invitation to this key discussion. Regarding Q5, my suggestion is to make the most of this 2020 NDC revision process, but at the same time set the pathway for future revisions in this five-year cycle.

Some elements I suggest considering in order to include youth needs and demands to enrich the NDC process are:

• Based on the 2020 process, countries establish/improve a permanent mechanism to include youth participation into the 5-year NDC revision cycle
• Design/ improve the youth participatory process to be an example of inclusiveness
• Each cycle the process could start by looking at the lessons learned and recommendations from the previous one. In fact, I would prefer permanent spaces of discussion instead of going on and off every five years
• Permanent spaces of discussion could also be the spaces for capacity building, allowing each cohort of young people to shorten the learning curve for effective participation
• Cross pollinate with similar processes about the incorporation of youth perspectives for the other two Rio Conventions

I invite participants to let us know if there is a mechanism already established in your countries and how it is implemented. Which are the pros and the areas of improvement you detect?

Best

Martin

Dear Paloma Costa , I absolutely agree with your points and don't think actually that what you added contradicts my input in any way. If we take educational curriculum, for instance, steering it towards more environmental education, soft skills and social entrepreneurship would be an integral part of a potential Green Youth Guarantee mechanism. And its beauty is in the fact that even though it should have some core tenets applicable everywhere, it will be easily adaptable to local needs because the process of the establishment of this Guarantee will be the one of co-creation, with local youth, especially indigenous in this particular case, having the prime seat at the table. Good policy, strong activism and local creativity are exactly the ingredients we need for this to happen. People of the Amazon are very lucky to have you by their side Paloma! :)

For English see below.

Buenos días a todos. Muchas gracias por tan interesante tema y discusión. Creo que mi pensamiento está más relacionado con la pregunta 3.
Creo que es muy importante mencionar una vez más el papel de los medios y cómo pueden contribuir a este tema. Aunque en los últimos años se tomaron muchas medidas, en mi opinión, todavía se necesitan iniciativas más grandes y mejores, que se centren en el papel de los jóvenes en este proceso.
En este sentido, las grandes redes de medios internacionales (como CNN, BBC, Al-Jazeera, etc.) pueden incluir más contenido relacionado con cómo los jóvenes pueden y deben contribuir. Estoy de acuerdo en que en los últimos años, observamos mejoras en varias direcciones, especialmente películas animadas y programas de televisión. Además, también se desarrollaron varias películas documentales. Sin embargo, deberíamos intentar extender el proceso a nivel mundial. Creo que es importante garantizar que la información se transfiera de manera muy simple, explicando cómo las acciones cotidianas de una persona pueden contribuir a la causa global.
Gracias por tu atención.

Good day everyone. Thank you very much for such an interesting topic and discussion. I believe my thought are more related to question 3.

I think it is very important to mention once again the role of media and how it can contribute to this topic. Even though in last years many actions were taken, in my opinion, there is still need for bigger and better initiatives, that will focus on role of youth in this process.

In this regard, big international media networks (such as CNN, BBC, Al-Jazeera, etc.) shall include more content related to how youth can and should contribute. I agree that in recent years, we observed improvements in various directions, especially animated movies and TV shows. Also, various documentary movies were developed as well. However, we should try to extend the process globally. I believe it is important to ensure that the information is transferred in very simple ways, explaining how one person’s everyday actions can contribute to global cause.

Thanks for your attention.

Thanks, Paloma Costa and Martin Cadena for your comments! Paloma, I especially appreciate you highlighting the amazing leadership and creativity of indigenous youth in Brazil. 

Overall, based on the comments thus far, it sounds like there is support for (1) including youth priorities - specifically around green jobs and capacity building - in NDCs, as well as (2) ensuring young peoples' participation in NDC formulation. And, as Martin Cadena suggested, the latter could be an ongoing process. 

For those interested in taking this conversation further, you may consider sharing your thoughts as well with the NDC Partnership's Youth Task Force: http://bit.ly/2E1XfMq

I'm also very curious to know if anyone has a response to Martin's question! Can anyone share experience with existing mechanisms to facilitate youth participation in NDC revisions? Or, as question #4 asks, are there examples of civil society engagement that might provide useful models?  

Dear all, I am happy to be able to contribute to this discussion. 

I would like to address questions 2 and 3 about supporting effective engagement of youth in the NDC process by governments, the UN, and non-governmental organizations. To a large extent, my statement echoes the ideas presented above by my peers. 

I believe that for meaningful youth engagement, we need to emphasise the role of youth and show practical steps for the implementation of such mechanisms. Hence, I would like to suggest that both the UN bodies and non-governmental organizations that support governments in the NDC review process (such as NDC Partnership or World Resources Institute) make youth engagement mechanisms an integral part of their templates, guidelines, and suggestions. As much as youth advocate for listening to scientists and experts, it would be great to hear professionals advocate for the inclusion of youth. Unfortunately, on national level, often only limited resources are allocated for the NDC review and even less for the stakeholder engagement, so we must make sure that these practices can be as efficient and easy to implement as possible. One of the good practices that I observed in this aspect is engaging the National Youth Councils as a proxy for engaging youth in the governmental process if there is not enough will or resources at the ministerial level.  

When proposing these engagement mechanisms, I think it is particularly important to encourage the governments to have fair, equitable, inclusive, youth-led platforms. Too often such high-level spaces are exclusively available for youth cherry-picked by the government representatives. 

Week One Summary

Thank you, everyone, for your contributions last week! I was really pleased to moderate the discussion with my colleague Vugar Allahverdiyev. We heard some great ideas on ways the United Nations, governments, and civil society organizations can include youth priorities and expand youth engagement in NDC enhancement processes. We also learned about the importance of supporting activities in Brazil that create real environmental, social, and economic value, as well as the role of media in providing climate change-related content for young people. We are now to passing the baton to Chiagozie Udeh and Katharina Davis who will be the moderators this week. We look forward to the continued discussion!  

Welcome everyone,

Many thanks to Vugar Allahverdiyev  and @Margaret Ferrato for the excellent facilitation in the week one of this e-consultation. I and Katharina Davis are excited to take over the baton for this week before handing over to Amy Wickham and Alana Craigen for the concluding week. 

We invite you all to share your thoughts, experiences and ideas on this platform to help shape the UNDP programmatic work on how youths are involved in the NDC enhancement process globally. Please see the guiding questions above and indicate which one of them you are addressing in your comments. 

We trust that you will make good use of this virtual space to influence how young people are engaged in the NDC enhancement which will represent the ambition or lack of it of member States in achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement. There is no limit to the number of contributions you can make and please feel free to invite your friends, colleagues and network to also take part. 2020 is a vital year for this process, help us make it count! 

Warmest thanks to Vugar Allahverdiyev and @Margaret Ferrato for moderating this consultation in Week 1, and to the whole Youth Envoy's Office for hosting the #Youth4ClimateLive Event on Friday 24 July with Achim Steiner. For colleagues who would like to (re)watch that episode on 'Driving sustainable recovery' is available here:

Also warmly congratulating Paloma Costa Vladislav Kaim and Nisreen Elsaim for being appointed as members of the newly established Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change, announced today by the Secretary-General! https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2020/07/young-leaders-ta…

Youth Power! #Youth4Climate #Youth2030

Many thanks to awesome moderators for the amazing works and thank you for the invitation. A lot of great suggestions are already put forward by colleagues. I would like to highlight a point that always preach on. 

Regarding Q2, To ensure meaningful participation of youths  in the NDC enhancement process, the first step is to have a mandatory and  formal “Youth Engagement Mechanism” in all governments, which should be inclusive and devoid of tokenization of youths, and should immediately follow with capacity building at first.

Question No2: What concrete support could the United Nations system and/or governments provide to ensure youth meaningful participation in the NDC enhancement process, or NDC implementation/climate action?

Establishment of national youth focal points elected through a UN process to represent the views and contribution of youth in policy making about climate action, as well as a the UN pushing for clear guidelines for inclusion of youth perspectives in the preparation of NDCs ans any project/initiative relating to climate action at national level. 

Thanks a lot Krishnee Appadoo for your thoughts.  Regarding your suggestion for elected youth Focal Points for this process, wouldn't it be encouraging individualism and perhaps limited engagement of youth as opposed to more broad engagement of self organized national youth groups? Would like to know your thoughts on this as there seem to be a preference for collective engagement for yoith groups 

On the contrary, a focal point would be the one assembling all youth groups together with the mandate of ensuring that there is adequate youth representation in terms of agenda setting and policy making. 

1. The NDC could either have a section specifically about how to address youth issues and how to integrate young people in the implementation of the NDC – or it should be encouraged/mandatory to have youth as a cross-cutting issue throughout the NDC, and by that, the topic of youth inclusion and consideration should be brought in wherever relevant.

2. The UNFCCC could communicate to the parties to include young people in the NDC enhancement process. Governments can create a youth council/advisory group (or similar), which channel inputs from young people in the country to the NDC. Regarding NDC implementation, the same (or a different) youth council should provide inputs and advice to the specific programmes or projects, as a part of stakeholder engagement.
 
3. Partnerships between the government (on the relevant level, i.e. national, regional or local), businesses, NGOs, academia and youth. Young people should be given financial resources to be able to participate in the (physical) meetings of these networks/partnerships. Resources to ease the communication between the different actors are also needed.

5. For countries where the NDC revision process has already started, young people should immediately be included in that process. It should also be discussed already during the revision, how young people can be involved in the implementation. For any country, there should be discussions (together with yputh representatives) on how to include young people in the implementation of the NDC. For example, young people should be consulted in the development of existing and new climate targets and policies.

Hello, it is nice to be here, Is it possible countries ensure that young people are included during the drafting of countries NDC especially young people from rural/indigenous communities who are affected greatly by climate crisis 

Good day ladies and gentlemen.

Here is my response for the first question:

A major opportunity for enhancing youth development related to the NDCs lies in enhancing nature-based solutions (NBS) at the national and local levels. NBS are generally more cost-effective in the long run than technical solutions, while also aiding in recovery from COVID-19. The mainstreaming of such solutions are aligned with promoting co-financing between national and local government units for development programs that may benefit multiple local governments, including livelihood opportunities and climate resilience; this can help lower the needed finance that may otherwise be used towards engineered solutions that would have the same desired results.

It should be noted that the majority of current NDCs (66%) recognize NBS as a key part of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. However, only around 17% of these NDCs include quantifiable and robust targets. Furthermore, only 17 countries aim to address adaptation and mitigation together through NBS, despite the potential of these actions for cost-effectively addressing the impacts of the climate crisis. This suggests that considerable potential remains for countries to strengthen the role of NBS in future NDCs.

Involving the youth in NBS in the NDC context provides many opportunities for sectoral development. As NBS tend to involve local implementation, this allows youth more opportunities to be more directly involved in the planning, implementation, and monitoring processes, which should give them invaluable insights about the climate crisis and addressing the risks at this level. The innovativeness required for enacting NBS is suited for the creative approaches the youth of today can help develop (e.g., reforestation, mangrove conservation, coral reef protection), effectively building a culture of ecological consciousness and integrated approaches that will be necessary to successfully achieve the NDC targets worldwide for the next few decades.   

Here is my response for the second and third questions:

The participation of the youth in processes within the UN system, especially those pertaining to the enhancement and implementation of NDCs in the region, needs to be strengthened. More youth delegates from the Global South, including the Asia-Pacific region that hosts many of the highly vulnerable communities, must be allowed to participate during the annual UN climate change conferences, where they can provide assistance in monitoring key outcomes of the weeks-long negotiations and attending side events that can help enhance their knowledge on key issues, as well as reporting on the outcomes that help shape the local and regional narrative of climate-related issues in their respective areas.

National governments must strengthen their collaborations with non-government stakeholders as a means of providing more support for the development of their youth delegations as future climate leaders. Given the lack of adequate financial and technical resources in many countries, they need to create partnerships and strengthen existing ones with civil society organizations, businesses through corporate social responsibility, and multilateral fund-granting institutions, to create programs and projects designed to further capacitate the youth in addressing climate change issues within their schools, work places, and communities.

Given the challenges of recovering from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, national strategies may integrate co-benefits in climate change mitigation and adaptation into recovery plans. Such plans and actions may also be considered as contributing to attaining the targets under the UN Sustainable Development Goals, most notably on poverty reduction, food security, and peace and justice. Yet given the high stakes and urgency of future climate-related events, no matter the scale, embracing the “whole-of-society” approach in dealing with climate change impacts is a necessity that vulnerable countries cannot afford to delay or ignore.

It is also important to institutionalize more mechanisms for the youth to be involved in climate change-related research and development processes. In this day and age, it is necessary to strengthen science-based approaches towards every step of the climate action process, from local and global stocktaking of data and information needed for assessing vulnerabilities to climate risks to monitoring, reporting, and validating progress in the implementation of related policies and programs. This would allow countries to fill in the gaps in regional and local climate change impacts, which have prevented effective planning and actions to be conducted by many vulnerable communities, as noted in previous IPCC reports. Such engagement allows for the training and development of more experts to be involved in the UNFCCC processes, especially in conducting more accurate and efficient global stocktakes, and implementing and enhancing NDCs in the next few decades.

Governments must also devise mechanisms for addressing generational and gender divides on understanding climate-related risks and opportunities. This is integral in tailoring information and initiatives on climate-related impacts and responses in ways suitable to these different perceptions, given the highly-localized impacts. Doing so does not only lead to likely reduced risks through an inclusive participatory goal centered on youth activities, but also produces long-term co-benefits such as educational and developmental learning and the potential for coherent and collaborative approaches to tackling climate and disaster-related risks, from the household scale up to the national or international level.

Dear Udeh,

Thank you for the invitation to contribute to this crucial discussion. I will center my contribution on Q2. To begin with, I believe for us to have an effective engagement of young people in the NDC process. I believe the following will have a significant impact:

1. The problem we as young people have continuously faced is our lack of involvement in decision- making processes on developmental issues, key among which is climate action. Therefore, I believe we should be a part and parcel of decision-making processes in the implementation of our NDCs. This shouldn't be a participation/ representation that should be tokenized, but where young people's contributions and participation would be implemented during this process. This is because we(youth) are usually on the ground at grassroots, national, and even international levels where we continue to do robust advocacies and awareness creation regarding environmental issues.

2. We have seen how difficult it is for parties to have young people in their team to support environmental/ climate policies in our respective countries. However, I believe the recent establishment of the UN Secretary General's Youth Climate Advisory group will serve as an example for countries to create similar platforms to have young people provide technical support( advice, mobilization, etc) in the NDC enhancement process to make sure that issues concerning young people are taken seriously throughout this process.

3. Finally, I will agree with the comments raised by my sister/ colleague Krishnee that it will equally be pivotal to have youth focal points at our Ministries of Environment and Climate Change who will represent young people to not only advocate for the inclusion of young people in our NDC processes but makes sure that he/she communicates and mobilizes youth and climate organizations to continue to get engage in our NDC enhancement processes and other climate-related activities.

Dear Udeh,

Thanks for the invitation to this nice discussion. My responses are more Q3 and Q5 oriented. 

Youth are a critical stakeholder in climate action but youth remain underrepresented in decision-making about the future of our planet. Despite the need to promote the voices of young people in policy debates on climate change and risk reduction, evaluation of methods for doing so are not well developed. The education sector to take a more prominent position in climate negotiations and action. A good starting place would be for the sector to tackle how national climate strategies have currently positioned education.

More than half of NDCs failed to mention children, youth, or future generations. The majority positioned youth as a vulnerable group. Only some actually positioned youth as stakeholders to be included in climate decision making and action. It is important for the local, provincial, national and international stakeholders to open up more spaces for youth to express themselves in the ways that are most comfortable for them.

The governments need to include the youth in the formation phase of NDCs or there should a specific section in NDCs about the youth development and empowerment. Partnerships should be developed between governments, intergovernmental, non-governmental and youth organizations for joint environmental initiatives aimed at building the capacity of youth as future leaders and driving forces behind a new climate change regime. Considerable efforts are also needed in strengthening the adaptive capability and resilience of youth in rural communities in developing countries.

Hello participants,

I am Zainab and I am an ambassador for Inclusion with the UNESCO Youth Forum in Nigeria. 

In response to Q3, What concrete support could the United Nations system and/or governments provide to ensure youth meaningful participation in the NDC enhancement process, or NDC implementation/climate action?

In Nigeria, for instance, there is little awareness of the NDCs even by Nigerian youths. This lack of sufficient awareness is already a set back to the meaningful participation of youth. I would suggest that the UN systems mandate the engagement of youth, by national governments, in any NDC enhancement particularly process supported by the UN systems. 

Hello everyone,

I am Sharmin Shara Mim from Bangladesh. I am passionate about youth and climate change. My activities revolve around youth.

How should the NDC design address youth development needs and climate-related risks for youth to achieve climate-youth policy integration?

My response to Q1: Country's climate plan should include youth engagement. There should be a platform to bring youth and policy makers in one umbrella. For instance, there could be open dialogues between youth and policy makers. During national climate action plan development, there should be youth representative. 
 

Hello Everyone!

This is Rishabh Tiwari from India. I have been working actively with Alexis Group, a leading youth organisation in India, for the past three years and also a Renewable Energy Working Group Member at Youngo. 

[Question-3] 
More active participation of youth in developing countries like India can be ensured by significantly increasing the quantity and quality of partnerships and collaborations with the schools, universities and other educational institutions. A very minute number of such partnerships exist, at least in India, and those too are mostly limited to tier-1 institutions, which are oftenly located in the metro cities.
As such, the major section of youth studying in other institutions and living in non-metro cities, remain unaware about the means to contribute to the climate action, and sometimes even about the SDGs. By developing a design of partnerships with these institutions, the youth participation can be increased multi-fold and that too in a very organised manner. Once such a partnership structure is developed, the same can be leveraged for youth participation in decision making process across multiple levels, regional, national and international.

Would love to hear and discuss more on this.

Thank You. 

Hello there!

I have the pleasure to co-moderate this session with the wonderful Chiagozie Udeh whom you have already met. I would like to thank you all for your super interesting contributions! I loved reading them. There were a few things that stuck out to me:

1. Young people do not want to be treated as a token but as a REAL stakeholders. 
2. Young people should be recognized as resourceful contributors to solve the climate crisis - not just as a vulnerable group.
3. Involving youth in the implementation of the NDC offers huge opportunities to harness your creativity and ingenuity to contribute climate solutions.

What could involving youth as true stakeholders and climate crisis solvers look like?

You mentioned creating start-ups for climate technology innovations, contributing to climate change-related research and development (R&D), strenthening science-based approaches, participating in expert training, and contributing to nature-bases solutions. Hello future generation of green engineers, scientists and enterpreneurs!

So how can governments loop you in for real?

I saw some interesting ideas floating around including:

1. Creating platforms or other engagement platforms through votes, nominations, organic grass-roots organization etc. - engagement could be sporadic or regular.
2. Having a dedicated youth focal at the Ministry of Environment for regular input and mainstreaming of youth perspectives in environmental policies - could be at the CC/NDC committee as well.
3. Having a dedicated section in the NDC on youth - I would argue also for a dedicated section in NDC implementation plans, CC laws or other instruments that serve for implementation purposes that define institutional arrangements, roles, resonsibilitlies etc. 
4. Systematic outreach to educational facilities - including to rural areas - which is key to reaching young people as they learn about the world and consider their role and future career interests (see the point above on future green engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs)

I can't wait to hear more and would love to receive any comments on my quick summary!

Best,

Katharina

Rishabh Tiwari Sharmin Shara Mim Zainab Irfan ullah Fatou Jeng Sara Nyberg Ngozi Krishnee Appadoo Pramisha Thapaliya John Leo algo

Hello all!

Adding my perspective on facilitating youth engagement as an urban planner experienced with working in the public sector and non-profit space. Youth in cities are motivated to contribute to developments and are concerned about the way their mayors are addressing the climate question. City mayors recognize the value of engaging youth and many are talking about setting up Youth City Climate Councils within their administration. This would imply that there is a formal space for youth at the table, which is the first step to designing a meaningful youth engagement in cities. The city of Copenhagen has been successful in setting up a youth council last year and many others are having similar discussions. As more young people become interested in the urban development agenda, setting up Youth Climate Councils at the city level is an arena to involve youth in not only the vertigal integration of the NDCs but to also reflect back at the national level. 

Hello everyone,

Thank you very much for your good and fruitful comments.

I would like to share with you the experience in Argentina, which is related with the initial questions (2, 4 and 5):

In Argentina Youth organizations have been exponentially increasing their participation on Climate Action and UNDP in Argentina has been working with them considering the importance of their voice and mobilization for accelerating implementation and raising ambition of the NDC.

In 2019 different dialogues with representatives of youth organizations and government authorities were facilitated by UNDP Argentina in order to contribute to the acceleration of NDC implementation and raising NDC ambition. (more information here in Spanish  https://news.un.org/es/story/2019/07/1458891

https://www.ar.undp.org/content/argentina/es/home/presscenter/articles/2019/DialogosCC.html)

In addition, it is important to consider that at the end of 2019 the National Congress passed a new Act on Climate Change, and that youth organizations were involved in the law-building process together with representatives from civil society organizations and the Academia.

https://www.cronista.com/economiapolitica/Es-ley-la-lucha-contra-el-cambio-climatico-en-Argentina-cuales-son-sus-principales-objetivos-20191121-0023.html

In November, UNDP was part of the organization of COY 15 in Argentina https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=93&v=1s_DZtgWYbc&feature=emb_title

During 2020, as part of the activities for "environmental education week", a workshop targeting Youth groups was held to analyze the Climate Change Act, titled: "Youth and Climate Change: ideas, questions and proposals". The workshop was attended by a total of 167 young activists from organizations committed to the subject. The organizations that participated in the workshop were: Climate Alliance, Youth for the Climate and Sustainability without Borders. The members of each one of them formed different working groups in which they sought to reach consensus on proposals for the implementation of the aforementioned act. The tables were oriented to address issues such as experiences and lessons learned within the framework of the National Cabinet on Climate Change; the National Adaptation and Mitigation Plan in a broad sense; different specific aspects related to adaptation and mitigation; and the approach of the National Information System on Climate Change (more information at https://www.argentina.gob.ar/noticias/se-realizo-una-jornada-sobre-adaptacion-y-mitigacion-al-cambio-climatico-junto-jovenes-de).

During the event, progress was made in reflecting on national education on climate change and the need for collective awareness. The debate also highlighted the importance of having an Environmental Education Act that fosters greater knowledge on issues related to adaptation. It was a space that served to bring the work within the Ministry closer together  and to start discussions between technical experts and young civil society representatives.

Argentina has been committed and actively participating in the international context and submitted its INDC in late 2015. Furthermore, in year 2016 the National Climate Change Cabinet (NCCC) was created by Decree 891/2016, with the purpose to articulate policies on climate change and raise awareness throughout society about their relevance. The Cabinet is chaired and coordinated by the Cabinet of Ministers and composed of the heads of 15 National Ministers (Energy, Transport, Agroindustry, Environment and others). In this framework, the National Secretary of Climate Change and Sustainable Development of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development is the Technical Administrative Coordinator of the Cabinet, a key element in charge of providing the necessary assistance for the functioning of the Cabinet. In order to fulfill its purpose, the Cabinet and the different stages comprises in it work towards the revision of its NDC which was finally submitted in 2016 for not to surpass net emission by 483 million tCO2eq in 2030. Notwithstanding the first revision date, Argentina plans to submit a new revision and for that reason Climate Promise Initiative is going to add value and help enhance the ambitions working in close collaboration to ongoing programs such as NDC partnership and National Adaptation Plans for instance. The objective of this activity will be to build capacities and receive inputs from youth groups in Argentina about climate change topics, measures included in each plan, NDC and LTS.  Additionally, this activity is expected to enhance youth group sensibilization and act as a multiplier with the many actors involved in this project. 

Many thanks for this opportunity to share our experiences through these important e conversations!

Warm regards,

Maru Di Paola

CO UNDP Argentina

Hello!

How are they?

Thank you very much for this conversation! Very interesting!

I am Máximo Mazzocco, from Eco House, a non-profit organization whose main objective is to promote sustainable development through education, volunteering, advocacy work and environmental certification. We are one of the environmental organizations with the largest amount of volunteers in Argentina, and co-founders of the Argentina Climate Alliance, a big coalition of environmental organizations fighting against the climate crisis. Soon, we will be launching offices in several Latin American countries.

I would like to add a comment.

One of the most important strategies that the United Nations system can easily do is to connect climate youth movements with the various state agencies (national and sub-national). This was key to achieve what María Eugenia mentioned!

We know hundreds of young people in Latin America and the Caribbean who work daily on this and cannot even get a meeting with their representatives (legislators, ministries, municipalities, environmental directions, etc).

In order to achieve the climate goals, it is necessary to create spaces for dialogues that lead to concrete actions (between youth and different generation).

We do it every day. We connect people, and actions come out on their own!

If we provide youth with the necessary tools, we'll see a great change in the short term.

Let´s keep working together!

instagram.com/eco.house
ecohouse.org.ar

Hi Everyone,

Thank you Chiagozie Udeh  for inviting me to share my perspective.

Sharing my perspective on (Q3) which stakeholders/partnerships key in enabling youth meaningful participation in climate action as a forester experienced with interacting and working with different stakeholders in the forest sector. Youths in forest communities, communities adjacent to conservation areas and or indigenous peoples are one of the most important stakeholders to consult and engage with especially in terms of nature based solutions. Because,they have ties to these resources  and they see the forests as Capital which should be protected rather than interest that should be wasted.

However, this group is often ignored or merely informed and not consulted in decision making processes regarding their home and source of livelihood. This has led to clashes between forests communities and conservationists, government and mill owners and also led to insecurities, the use of forests for insurgencies and unlawful exploitation of forest resources. This in a long run would imply the inability to properly govern and control these forests, affecting the accurate data on the state of the forests.

Global governance alone is unrealistic! However, thinking globally or nationally but acting locally is a strategy for  meaningful participation in Climate Actions. This could be achieved through consultation and participation of forest communities in decision making processes, ensuring equal access and benefit sharing and enhance forest based economic benefits through small and medium scale forest enterprises (SMFEs) to improve the livelihoods of these forest dependent communities. This has been confirmed by FAO as it is expected that by 2050, 40% of the world's forest will be managed or owned by communities and individuals.

Week Two Summary

Dear enthusiastic youth contributors,

It was a pleasure for Chiagozie Udeh and myself to facilitate the discussion on youth engagement last week. Some interesting insights emerged from this discussion:

1. Young people do not want to be treated as a token but as a REAL stakeholders. 
2. Young people should be recognized as resourceful contributors to solve the climate crisis - not just as a vulnerable group.
3. Involving youth in the implementation of the NDC offers huge opportunities to harness your creativity and ingenuity to contribute climate solutions.

What could involving youth as true stakeholders and climate crisis solvers look like?

You mentioned creating start-ups for climate technology innovations, contributing to climate change-related research and development (R&D), strengthening science-based approaches, participating in expert training, and contributing to nature-bases solutions. Hello future generation of green engineers, scientists and enterpreneurs!

So how can governments loop you in?

We saw some interesting ideas floating around including:

1. Creating platforms or other engagement platforms through votes, nominations, organic grass-roots organization etc. - engagement could be sporadic or regular. F.ex. Setting up Youth Climate Councils as we saw from the example of Denmark.
2. Formal inclusion of youth in government - Having a dedicated youth focal at the Ministry of Environment for regular input and mainstreaming of youth perspectives in environmental policies - could be at the CC/NDC committee as well.Take advantage of sub-national governments and city Mayors who are eager to work with young people. In addition, indigenous people and forest communities should be consulted often especially regarding Nature-based solutions. 
3. UN System as integrator esp. in cases where government does not have inclusion mechanism. The United Nations system can connect climate youth movements with the various state agencies (national and sub-national) to facilitate access for youth to those in authority. UNDP Country offices can likewise support youth dialogues on NDC and create a permanent space for youth in climate change.
4. A dedicated section in the NDC on youth - I would argue also for a dedicated section in NDC implementation plans, CC laws or other instruments that serve for implementation purposes that define institutional arrangements, roles, resonsibilitlies etc. 
5. Systematic outreach to educational facilities - including to rural areas - which is key to reaching young people as they learn about the world and consider their role and future career interests (see the point above on future green engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs)
6. Tracking Youth engagement - we heard about ideas about to settng up a Youth NDC Tracker - (Y-NDCT) with a comprehensive methodology to track progress, identifying indicators of progress such as youth in National Climate Change Committees ; and indicators of implementation such as budget spend towards youth, youth inclusions in projects, and participation in engagements.

There were of course many other great ideas which we didn't capture in this short summery, so we encourage you to read the individual responses or our contributors. In the meantime, we are happy to hand over to our fellow co-facilitators Alana Craigen and Amy Wickham who are moderating the discussion this week! 

Warm regards,

Katharina & Chiagozie

Many thanks Katharina Davis and Chiagozie Udeh and to all those who’ve participated in this discussion thus far. 

Hello everyone and welcome to week three!

Myself and Alana Craigen are very pleased to moderate this week's conversation in Room 2 with a focus on youth engagement in NDC formulation and implementation. My name is Amy Wickham and I work as Program Specialist on Climate, Energy and Environment at UNICEF. This week I will be joined by Alana Craigen who is a Climate Policy Specialist at UNDP.

There's been excellent ideas and sharing of initiatives in this group over the past two weeks and we're excited to build on this discussion. We look forward to receiving your feedback, ideas and questions on approaches, good practices and recommendations for enhancing youth participation in NDCs.

Above you will find five guiding questions to continue the conversation. Your feedback will be synthesized in weekly reports that will be used by UNDP for incorporation in their programmatic work on youth and climate change.

Best Wishes,

Amy & Alana

QUESTION 5:

Hi, I’m Cherop Soy from Kenya. Our country has significantly low GHG emission  but is prone to adverse effects of climate change as most parts of the country are arid and semi-arid (ASAL) regions.Our previous iNDC was to reduces them to under 30% These GHG emissions are mainly due to heavy reliance on wood fuel by her population. Surprisingly, industries, energy, and transport sectors produce negligible emissions.

The push for clean energy technologies to reduce the overreliance on wood fuels was one of the proposed mitigation measures. However, despite the government actions to implement this, a significant number of citizens did not fully embrace this and some resorted back to wood fuel. My opinion is that although capacity building and knowledge dissemination of new technologies was part of the mitigation process, the government concentrated more on the introduction of the clean technologies.

Kenyan youth are greatly affected by unemployment and occupy the largest chunk of the population, just like in almost all other African countries and countries of the global South. These capacity building and knowledge dissemination should have been allocated to the youth in their respective areas because: most of them can speak in fluent English/Kiswahili and vernacular languages, most are educated, most locals would be comfortable relating to someone familiar. In the end, the adoption of clean technologies would have been better and there would have been job creation.

I think with every mitigation and adaptation project for the NDCs, governments should allocate a section for the youth, just in the same way there is a gender allocation

Dear Cherop Soy, echoing Alanas message, thank you so much for raising these important points, and for the excellent idea presented at the end! Having capacity building and knowledge dissemination allocated to the youth is so important if we would like to achieve sustainable positive change. Do you have any ideas of approaches or platforms that have been effective for such engagement in this sector? Perhaps you’ve already seen some very good examples in Kenya or elsewhere that you might like to share?

Thank you Chiagozie Udeh for directing me to the conversation and Amy and Alana for this week's moderation. I am originally from Sri Lanka and currently, a young scientist working on thermal energy storage, grid interactions, and electricity demand moderation strategies at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the USA.

To respond to question 5, so far 4 countries have submitted their second/revised NDCs. Andorra, Marshall Islands, Moldova, Suriname being those. When looking closely into the structure of the first round of NDCs, Mitigation, Adaptation, Loss, and Damage, Means of Implementation are the main sections and the items under these carry broader perspectives. The second or revised submissions (from the examples of already submitted NDCs) are more comprehensive and detailed. This is an indication that the time period between the first NDC and the second has provided space to break down the broader thematics into more actionable subtopics/sub thematics. This presents a good opportunity to effectively map where youth can be an integral part of NDCs implementation. 

Young people are experts in different fields. Therefore, the implementation processes should be timely designed to use such expertise as well as the motivation of the young people. Young people are already at the forefront of campaigning, research, innovations, start-ups, and creative products. It is a matter of designing programs that can best utilize these tools they already have. I am highlighting this because the best way to incorporate demands and needs into the process is to have them present in the process. This should go beyond just advisory roles, but more of hands-on implementation action related roles. Therefore, in the process of identifying more descriptive action points within NDCs, one should identify how to engage the youth in each of them.

Dear Sajith Wijesuriya, many thanks for sharing your excellent contribution and response to Q.5, and thanks Chiagozie Udeh for directing Sajith to this discussion.

Sajith, it's great to know that you are keeping up to date with the revised NDC submissions and also that you're very familiar with their content. The proposed opportunity that you highlight is an important one, and the point you make regarding the importance of engaging with youth by having their participation in the process is key, and should certainly go beyond advisory roles as you suggest.

Thank you for these valuable contributions and great ideas shared!

Hola, les saluda Alonso Tufino de Perú.

Desde mi experiencia siento que para involucrar y empoderar a los adolescentes y juventudes organizadas y no organizadas en la implementación de las políticas públicas explícitas e implícitas frente a la crisis climática es necesaria

a. Dar a conocer las metas, acciones y logros de Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) por país. 

b. Fijar un monto mínimo de gasto directo en adolescentes y juventudes de la NDC en base a las capacidades y circunstancias por país, con la participación de sus propios adolescentes y jóvenes.

c. Conocer cuánto es el % del gasto directo en adolescentes y juventudes en relación con la inversión anual prevista para la implementación de la NDC por país.

Sinceramente

Dear José Alonso Tufino Borja, thank you for this contribution and for the important points made regarding NDC budget allocations toward adolescent and youth, developed together with youth, as well as the need for tracking such allocations as a % of the overall annual NDC implementation investment. These are excellent examples of ways to ensure such engagement is sustainable and effective!

It was also good to see you mention - ACE and the publication of goals, actions and achievements of ACE by country. You may have already seen this ACE into NDCs guide, but sharing also just in case - https://newsroom.unfccc.int/topics/education-youth/resources/ace-and-ndcs.

Thanks again!

Indeed, thank you so much for raising these excellent points, José Alfonso Tufino Borja! To build off Amy's comment, would you happen to have any examples to share regarding point b) or c) or perhaps any ideas on how budgets should be allocated for impactful youth engagement and participation? Thank you!  

Pregunta 2: el sistema puede ayudar a los países a crear lineamientos de participación, ser entes que vigilen los procesos con el objetivo que se incluya a todos. Promoviendo el fortalecimiento de capacidades para que lo jóvenes realicen incidencias efectivas en los espacios que puedan participar. Quizás implementar exámenes periódicos a los países para evaluar su nivel se cumplimiento y mejora.

Pregunta 5: estableciendo diferentes tipos de consultas y una especial dirigida a jóvenes, acompañado de talleres de revisión y actualización.  

@Beatriz Reyes thank you for these great contributions and answers on Q.2 and Q.5. These are great ideas and they align with much of the discussion that has taken place to date.

On Q.2, well noted regarding the need for the provision of participation guidelines, process oversight to ensure inclusivity, as well as promoting capacity strengthening of young people to participate meaningfully in the process.

On Q.5, having different types of consultations including a special one aimed at young people is also important, as well as the tracking and review of such workshops. Do you have any examples of particular consultation processes you know that have been effective?

Many thanks again!

2 - In my point of view, governments and the UN system may  build more bridges of communication with youth all over the world to inhance the NDC  by focusing on the schools and colleges and youth institutions to have closer look on what is in ther minds and to know the real amout of awareness they have about climate implementation actions and NDCs , and to rise their knowledge about climate with the right and realistic informations so they can transmit this knowledge to their societies to get  the maximum benefit of discussions and to have more ideas and use the experience of the indigenous in facing climate problems or to improve the environment surrounds .

Dear Rawan Altaif, thank you for this contribution and response for Q.2 Engaging with education systems and youth institutions to facilitate communication, assessment of current knowledge levels, as well as building this capacity and awareness of climate action and NDCs is important if we are looking to ensure meaningful participation of youth in the NDC enhancement process/implementation. Indeed it’s important to recognize that youth have a key role to play in terms of knowledge transmission, much of which we’re already experiencing today, but ensuring that the way they are engaged and communicating is inclusive is also very important, including indigenous communities and their experiences with regard to climate change.

Thank you for these excellent points!

Week Three Summary

Hello all,

Alana Craigen and I would like to thank you for the great contributions and enthusiastic discussion here over the past week. Our summary of the discussion is below:  

• Building capacity of young people: Building capacity of young people is needed to ensure they can participate meaningfully in the NDC enhancement process
• Enhanced knowledge dissemination: Better knowledge dissemination of NDCs/NDC measures and use of appropriate communication tools could help reach broader audiences to educate and engage young people  
• Inclusive approach: Ensuring the capacity building and knowledge dissemination processes of engaging youth are inclusive and engage with all communities, and that innovative approaches are explored in order to deliver this.
• Societal ownership: Societal ownership of NDCs is key to ensuring effective implementation and enhancement of mitigation and adaptation measures 
• Tracking of youth participation: Tracking of youth participation (through Y-NDCTs, focal points or representatives in ministries, budget tagging/allocations, dedicated section in BTRs, etc.) is crucial in monitoring the level of youth participation and progress of meaningful youth engagement in the NDC process. They can also act as "auditors" and hold governments account for inaction (or action and highlight climate champion countries)

The majority of comments we received this week were around question 5, for next week it would be great to see more responses/build on discussions around the other 4 questions.

We are now to passing the baton to Noella Richard and Martin Cadena, who will be the moderators for this final week. We look forward to the continued discussion and please spread the word through your networks to join us!  

Many thanks,

Amy & Alana

Dear Contributors, 

Welcome to the fourth week of this vibrant e- discussion! In this Room 2, we would love to hear your out-of-the-box ideas, experiences and lessons learned on how to ensure the integration of youth-related needs and issues in the NDC design.  

My colleague Martin Cadena and I, respectively as facilitator of the Global UNDP Community of Practice on nature-based solutions and climate actions and as UNDP Youth global team leader, are pleased to moderate this week’s discussion. 

As you can notice, we have received more than 80 comments in this room. We know you might feel the need to read all -or most- the comments before posting, and this can be a challenge as it is time-consuming. Fortunately, and thanks to our team of moderators, you just need five minutes to read their very good weekly summaries -the last one was posted today by @Amy Wickham and Alana Craigen - pinned at the top of this conversation. 

We encourage you to take action and participate. If you have not experienced the NDC process, you can still contribute with your ideas and recommendations, and are welcome to respond to a comment or to invite your peers to take part in the discussion. 

Your time and contributions will be highly appreciated and will help us to develop the first guidance package for UNDP practitioners on Youth & NDCs, as part of the Climate Promise. 

Make your voice heard! Thank you! 

Noe and Martin 

On Tuesday 11 August we had an online session on 'Young People Powering Climate Action', where more than 200 participants connected from all over the world to learn more about how to make climate action more ambitious, more youth-responsive, and more youth-driven. 

In case you have missed the session, please find the presentation and the recording of the session here: https://www.sparkblue.org/event/young-people-powering-climate-action

There were a lot of interesting questions and comments on how to empower young people to take part in the decision-making process. As time was not enough to dive deep into all aspects of the issue, we invite you to continue the conversation in this electronic discussion. 

Please enter your comments, questions, and ideas below

Make your voice heard!

Best

Martin

Dear Colleagues and Participants,

I have been delighted to read everyone’s substantive contributions as part of this exciting e-discussion on Youth & Climate/NDCs!

I am pleased to share some reflections from my side, as Director of UNDP’s Bureau for External Relations and Advocacy:

• Climate change has already changed the face of our planet. Its impact, combined with the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis, has magnified and dangerously exacerbated inequalities. It is urgent to act now for youth, and more importantly, with youth in the driving seat. 
• Youth meaningful participation in climate action is primarily a human right issue, and the risks faced by young environmental defenders globally, in particular in the current pandemic, are truly preoccupying (see recent ICNL’s paper on closing civic space for climate activists here).
• Youth empowerment is both a means and an end. The World should not and cannot afford to silence or limit the potential of young people in climate action. We need everyone on board, in particular young activists, innovators, entrepreneurs, political leaders and citizens! As we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, the need to enhance youth-led and youth-inclusive partnerships is clearly identified as a sine qua non to renew multilateralism, push for ambition and achieve better impact.
• Enhancing NDCs is a critical opportunity to shift the way in which we do business, in particular by recognizing and supporting young people more systematically. In UNDP, we are doing our best to lead by example and nurture this youth paradigm shift: from mobilizing youth movements that contribute to legislative processes in Argentina, to running public perceptions surveys on climate with youth in North Macedonia, to organizing camps for Climate Action in Viet Nam to enhancing youth formal engagement in the NDC process in Nigeria,  to our global Mission 1.5 game and campaign (www.mission1point5.org), we are working on all fronts to address assumptions about youth, open up new channels for their meaningful engagement, address both structural barriers and bottlenecks to youth participation in climate-related policies and work, support youth leadership.
• UNDP feels strongly about leaving no-one behind, and the points many of you made on inclusion, access to information and accountability are well taken! Those are critical to the success of the Climate Promise and we look forward to scaling-up our direct and coordinated support to youth organisations, including by working with the newly established UN Secretary-General’s Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change, the Youth Envoy, UNICEF and many partners internally and externally.
• Advancing gender equality is essential, and we should spare no effort to invest in girls and young women in the context of climate action (see blog here)
• To reach the 2030 Agenda, we need to increase the ambitions and pace of climate action and resilience against natural disasters. For instance, properly planned energy initiatives can increase opportunities for young women and guarantee their fundamental rights. (See my blog on climate security-related risks here).

Thank you again for your participation and wonderful insights, and do stay tuned with UNDP supported and led actions in this priority area (@UNDP, @UNDP4YOUTH and @UNDPClimate on Twitter).

Best wishes to all! /

Ulrika

Dear colleagues and participants, 

I'm Danaé Espinoza from Mexico. I'm an expert on citizen diplomacy on climate change, ACE programme implementation, and co-founder of CLIC! Movement. I want to thank Melissa Ingaruca for the invitation to participate in this space. I was reading the comments, recommendations, and ideas shared here and I could say that I concur with many of them. I consider it important that youth begin to have spaces for participation in the development of NDCs. I think this year is a good time to start planning them to ensure the impact of youth in the 2025 NDCs update.

I will focus on answering question 5: Considering that the 2020 NDC revision process has already started in many countries - while in others it has been completed - what could be ways to include youth needs and demands into the NDC design and ensure they are engaged in the NDC implementation and climate action?

From my perspective and given the current context of the pandemic, I believe that youth participation will still be very low in this process (2020), but seeds within 5 years are already on the ground. 

One of the ways to include needs and demands into de NDC design, and that can have good results is to develop local consultations to know what are the needs or demands of young people. These consultations yield relevant data, but the real challenge at the domestic level is to build capacities in young people and other relevant actors for data condensation that can be taken to the technical level of construction of an NDC. There is a need for a capacity-building mechanism to ensure the participation of youth at the technical level.

It is also necessary to identify other areas of current NDCs where the participation of young people is crucial for their development in this year (if possible) or towards 2025. In the case of the NDC of Mexico in its 2015 version, youth are part of the adaptation component of the NDC, as well as the gender and indigenous peoples. In the field of adaptation, youth can play a very important role. It is therefore necessary to have a mechanism for youth participation in NDCs at the domestic level. This may take time, but I believe that civil society, mainly, can create these spaces and co-create this mechanism with government actors who are responsible for the development of a country’s public policy. 

I believe that there are sufficient mechanisms for youth participation at the level of the United Nations. The challenge is at the country level given the different circumstances in which each country finds itself. I believe that this is where the United Nations could make an even stronger call to States on the importance of climate action by youth, and more so now in the context of COVID19. It is a must to ensure intergenerational participation for the next 10 years.

Thank you again for the invitation. 

Best to all! 

Danaé Espinoza

Dear Danaé,

Thank you for your insightful contribution. Completely agree on building capacities so young people can lead participatory processes at national and sub-national levels that inform the NDC revision process.

You mentioned that, in the case of Mexico, youth is already part of the adaptation component of the NDC, as well as the gender and indigenous peoples. In your opinion, what are the main learnings from this participation? What can be improved? What needs to be done during the 5-year space for the NDC next revision process?

As we are running out of time, I think we need to learn fast from our experiences and making sure we constantly incorporate the new cohorts into the loop.

Best

Martin