European Youth Adaptation Forum: a chance for youth in action for adaptation

Posted by admin On Giugno 28, 2022 0 Comment

Domenico Vito

The UNFCCC intermediate negotiation in Bonn has recently concluded.

Usually the so called “intersessionals” are the middle period meetings of UNFCCC between a COP and the following to prepare on the best way the path to the COPs final decisions

They are also a great opportunity for all the involved organization and entities to organize relevant event to inform what’s going on on the climate panorama.

On Saturday 11th in the Bonn room of the world conference center, the European Youth Adaptation Forum took place.

Organized by the Global Center for Adaptation (GCA) the event has been a great opportunity

For Hubzine we interviewed Adriana Valenzuela – Youth Leadership & Education Program Lead for GCA. to know more about the European Youth Adaptation forum.

The platform: the youth adaptation forums

“The youth adaptation forums are a platform to engage youth in decision making regarding adaptation”

In particular they want to foster participation of youth in the Global Goal on Adaptation to promote youth led adaptation solutions.

The program started in March – Adriana explained – with the first adaptation forum for Africa, then each month a region has been addressed: Pacific in April, Asia in May and now Europe taking the chance of the SB intersessionals.

Following will be North America and Latin America (July) and Caribbean (August) Adaptation Forums

The final step will be the Global Adaptation Youth Summit on 3 and 4 september in Rotterdam that will bring all the ouputs in direction to the COP27 in Egypt.

So the Adaption Youth Forums represent a worldwide participatory space for youths to contribute to the UNFCCC adaptation agenda.
The outcomes – says Adriana – will not be only the forums themselfs, but also a clear youth impact on the Global Goals on Adaptation: the platform is also promoting that youths can participate to all the events of Adaptation provided on the Glasgow – Sharm El Sheik Agenda, and that at least on of the events can be fully dedicated to youth.

The objectives are that youths can participate with their delegation and can participate to design the National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) shaping GGAs

The event in Bonn: European Youth Adaptation forum

The European step of the amazing journey proposed by GCA, has been a exciting moment in the middle of the two SBs weeks.

Under the engaging coordination of Adriana Valenzuela, the biggest personalities on youth action advocacy under UNFCCC has been invited.

From Miroslav Polzer, Founder & CEO of IAAI GloCha and promoter of the innovative platform for climate action DigitalArt4Climate, to Roberta Ianna, ACE focal point for Italy and chair of the Permanent Committee on Capacity Building (PCCB) under UNFCCC, Lydia Birtwistle-Sawyer, from the COP26 presidency and Krystina Madsen, Foundation for Environmental Education.

The session has been honored also of the presence of Salemud Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) in Bangladesh and lead author of the chapter on Adaptation and Mitigation in the IPCC’s fourth assessment report.

But real protagonists has been the youths and youth leaders that has been take the pace showing their role of local adaptation enablers : on the floor Ines Maunief, Climates, Maya Hischler, National Director of the International Association of Students of Agriculture and Related Sciences as well the next coordinators of youth events for Pre-COP27 in Congo.

During the discussion several interesting elements arised : the importance of build a climate resilient Europe since the local ground, the role of agriculture and youths, the community resilience and participation as essential to build adaptation and the importance of the coordination with the Green EU Deal for a more adapted and resilient Europe.

The European Youth Adaption Forum has been an unique and fruitful opportunity to match youths, experts and negotiators in order to focus on the adaptation goals and to engage youth participation in decision making on adaptation under the Glasgow Sharm el Sheik Work Program.

The roadmap is set toward COP27 in order to effectively let the voice of youth impact on relevant decision of the UNFCCC process

To engage and to know more on the amazing work done by GCA and Adriana Valenzuela

Reach out the link:

https://gca.org/tag/regional-youth-adaptation-forums/

For more info: https://gca.org/regional-youth-adaptation-forums–youth-adaptation-summit/