Proposal of Ensuring, Enabling, and Empowering the global south
Ensuring, Enabling, and Empowering
youth representation from the global south in international climate policy proceedings
CARE International, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and Maplecroft:
The map above shows overall human vulnerability based on a combination of natural, human, social, financial and physical factors. Areas shown in darkest blue are likely to be most at risk if exposed to extreme weather, such as floods, cyclones and droughts, or other impacts of climate change.
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
Conference of Parties 15, Conference of Youth 5
Copenhagen, Denmark
December 1-19, 2009
A Great Divide
As the climate negotiations move forward, there exists a divide. Those that will be the most affected by global climate change are least responsible. Those that have the largest stake in the negotiations’ outcome have the lowest numbers of delegates. Those voices that need to be heard are being muffled by the Global North. The meetings are conducted in languages not native to the majority of Global South countries. As developing countries are facing this urgent threat to their survival this divide needs to close.
A youth voice from the least represented countries can present the issues of developing countries in an energetic and creative way. They can help amplify their delegates’ voices and make connections with the international youth climate network. At COP14 in Poznan, youth representatives from 50 countries staged dynamic and sincere actions and campaigns, culminating in a moving youth intervention during the closing plenary. They can connect with the international youth and obtain the skills to form activist networks in their own countries. To resolve the inequity of representation at the UN the divide needs to close.
An audible youth voice from the global south is needed–it will provide a powerful and passionate message on behalf of the most vulnerable and least acknowledged members of the global community.
MISSION
To support youth from the Global South to attend the UNFCCC meetings to enable a wider and more equitable representation of youth around the world who will be affected by climate change.
The benefits of this will be:
To ensure a more representative position of global youth on climate change.
To enable capacity-building for youth from the global south. Attending COP15 an the Conference of the Youth will allow them to learn more about the international process, success stories and best practices from youth movements around the world. This will allow them to build networks to empower young people in their country.
To empower youth from the Global South, especially Least Developed Countries and Island State nations, to support their country delegations as a tangible way of affecting the negotiations. And in some cases get youth representation on country delegations.
Courtesy of Robert van Waarden
PROJECT OVERVIEW
1. Identify bodies that are ready to coordinate youth from the south to the COP15 UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
2. Find groups willing to build youth capacity through training and workshops to prepare them for COP15.
3. Secure funding for youth representatives from the Global South.
4. Interact with country delegations and governments to have youth representation and involvement on their delegation.
All this information will be transparent through the international youth movement’s website: www.youthclimate.org. Information may also become available on partner websites.
COORDINATION + CAPACITY BUILDING
AFRICA
Youth Representation
10 from South Africa
10 from East Africa
10 from West Africa
10 from Central Africa
10 from Northern Africa
Regional Coordinating Partners
African Youth Initiative on Climate Change
Global Gender for Climate Alliance
South African government
Regional Capacity Building
350.org training in South Africa
Regional trainings by AYICC
GGCA training in South Africa
CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA
Youth Representation
10 from Honduras, Mexico & Guatamala
20 from Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Ecuador
Regional Coordinating Partners
Mexican Youth Council for Climate Action
MIDDLE EAST
Youth Representation
10 youth (5 from Lebanon, 5 from rest of Arab region)
Regional Partner
IndyAct
Regional Capacity Building
350.org/IndyACT training in Turkey (July)
SOUTH ASIA
Youth Representation
15 from India
20 from Subcontinent
Regional Coordinating Partners
Indian Youth Climate Network
Nepalese Youth for Climate Action
Forum for Environmental Protection
*OGGRO
Regional Capacity Building
Badlaav Climate Camp in Delhi (July)
South Asian Youth Summit on Climate Change in Nepal (August)
SOUTHEAST ASIA & PACIFIC REGION
Youth Representation
20 from South East Asia
10 from China
5 from Pacific Region
Regional Coordinating Partners
Eco-league
Chinese Youth Climate Action Network
South Asian Youth Environment Network
Regional Capacity Building
TUNZA Conference in South Korea
The above information is only an initial working list of regional partners and networks. We hope to see this list of partners and supporters grow as we move forward.
FUNDRAISING
Due to the ambitious scale of this project a number of funding avenues will be pursued. Funding will take place in two forms. Firstly, to minimize financial expenditure a number of gifts in kind will be pursued.
These will take the form of:
• Shared accommodation with other youth delegates.
• Utilising the skill training capacities of existing NGOs and youth movements.
• Using the administrative infrastructure of existing NGOs.
• Negotiating discounts with travel agencies and airlines because of the bulk bookings and charitable cause.
• Encouraging donors to donate frequent flyer points.
Obviously not all expenditures can be fulfilled by gifts in kind and financial aid will be needed. We have started raising funds from a variety of sources.
Avenues being pursued include:
• Fundraising by the sale of ‘How old will you be in 2050?’ tshirts, in conjunction with Avaaz Foundation.
• Approaching Global North delegations to contribute to the project.
• Approaching NGOs for funding support and tapping into their fundraising networks for particular assistance from their supporters.
• Enquiring with the UN secretariat, UNFCCC and the UN global south delegate fund for financial assistance.
Though these will contribute to a vast bulk of our expenditure a significant portion will come from private donations.
Global north youth activists will be asked to donate a small stipend to help support the project. Fundraising days will be held across the world. Non-affiliated philanthropists will contribute and celebrities will be recruited to raise awareness and inspire mass small scale contributions.
Courtesy of Robert van Waarden
Please wait while till we put more relevent information:
Join our Working Groups.
Young people working on Climate Change who are specificially concentrating on the coming Copenahgen treaty have established different working groups for different purposes.
Visit our Central coordinating group
- Related to the COP-15 work they have working groups for Policy , Communication , Actions , Logistics , COY-05 , Youth Media , Global South, Capacity Building.
- For the coordination of regional level youth action on climate change relevance to a new climate treaty there are different working groups for different regions, namely: African Youth Initiative on Climate Change, Asian Youth Climate Movement, European Youth Climate Movement, Clima Latino which is also known as the listserv for Latin America, Nordic Youth Climate Action Movement, Youth Climate Movements in the countries of the former USSR who speak main Russian.
- We also have 3 more major groups for discussing of the policy and actions related to LULUCF/REDD), tracking and advocating for references to youth in the text of the climate agreement and one for the Project Survival.
- Other than these three main categories of groups we also have those who wok on the Young and Future Generations Day (includes planning for Youth reception) and those who are working on youthclimate.org youth climate development and another one called Climate Translators.
- COP15 youth wrap-up event group who are working hard on a powerful event for Dec 20th, 2009.
