Policy | Connect4Climate

Planet Week is Underway in Turin!

This weekend, Connect4Climate was proud to help kick off Planet Week: a

Join This Vital Webinar Series Ahead of COP28!

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is partnering with Connect4Climate, the Young Professionals for Agricultural Developme

What I Brought to COP15 – and What It Brought Me

Before I left home, I wasn’t sure what to expect from my trip to Montreal for the fifteenth Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on

Be a Part of COP27!

The 27th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, a.k.a.

Interview, Photo and Video Consent/License/Release

A standard release form administered to participants in Connect4Climate interviews and other engagements allowing their words, likenesses etc. to be used freely across Connect4Climate channels.

My Empowering Africa Climate Week

“Spero spera” is an old Italian saying that means “As long as I breathe, there is hope.” The hope within young people in Africa is that one da

MENA Climate Week in Review

I was thrilled to attend last week’s first-ever Middle East and North Africa Regional Climate Week (MENACW 2022), a promising momentum-builder

Gearing Up for MENA Climate Week

On March 28, the first-ever MENA Climate Week will convene stakeholders from across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to assess the prog

C4C's 2021 Climate Action Highlights

Rising to the challenge of the new virtual paradigm created by the COVID-19 pandemic, Connect4Climate and our partners worked hard in 2021 to

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The #Youth4Climate Live Series

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The product of a close yearlong collaboration between C4C and Italy’s Ministry for Ecological Transition (MITE), the <a href="https://youth4climate.live/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">#Youth4Climate Live Series</a> of interactive and intergenerational virtual discussions paved the way to the Youth4Climate: Driving Ambition summit in Milan with deep dives into the event’s guiding climate action topics. Guided by expert moderation from C4C Youth Ambassadors Salina Abraham and Ahmed Badr, youth leaders and experienced climate policymakers exchanged ideas in hour-long episodes peppered with polls and Q&A segments that encouraged dynamic audience participation.

The final two episodes in the series, on Driving Adaptation & Resilience (aired Jan. 22) and Driving Local Action (aired Feb. 26), were the perfect kick-off to 2021, setting the stage for engagements to follow around the landmark youth summit, the Pre-COP preparatory climate conference, and COP26, the biggest event of the climate calendar.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiKCuhb5Kco]

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Youth4Climate: Driving Ambition

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As a key partner of the Italian Government and the Ministry for Ecological Transition, Connect4Climate was proud to support Youth4Climate: Driving Ambition with contributions to its content, advocacy campaigns, and overall engagement strategy. Opening with impassioned remarks from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NklTJv9S4rI" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Vanessa Nakate</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceIE_ehQhtc" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Greta Thunberg</a>, the summit brought nearly 400 international youth delegates—two each from almost all of the 197 countries party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)—to Milan, Italy for three days of intensive deliberations that resulted in the <a href="https://www.mite.gov.it/sites/default/files/archivio_immagini/Y4C_COP-P…; style="text-decoration-line: none;">Youth4Climate Manifesto</a>.

In the opening session of Pre-COP26, the central points of this youth declaration were presented to leaders including Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and COP26 President Alok Sharma. The demands of the Youth4Climate Manifesto then made their way to Glasgow, feeding into the COP deliberations there and setting a tone of much-needed urgency and ambition.

You can review the demands of the Youth4Climate Manifesto in our accessible overview article <a href="https://www.connect4climate.org/initiative/unpacking-youth4climate-dele…; style="text-decoration-line: none;">here</a>. We look forward to continuing to support and grow Youth4Climate in the years to come, as Italian Minister of Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani confirmed at COP26 that his country is committed to making Youth4Climate an annual initiative.

Photo by Leigh Vogel, Connect4Climate.

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#All4Climate Activates a Movement

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This year’s landmark gathering in Milan, which gave youth leaders center stage in a way few other climate conferences of its scale had before, was bolstered by #All4Climate, an umbrella initiative empowering representatives from civil society, academic institutions, and the private sector to join the climate conversation across over 500 hand-picked events held throughout Italy in the run-up to and alongside the summit.

As part of #All4Climate, C4C developed the #WorldIsWatching campaign to draw the world’s collective gaze to COP26 and remind leaders that both people and planet demand urgent action. This interactive advocacy campaign put #EyesOnCOP26 everywhere, inviting members of the public to join the movement through a dedicated AR filter while getting the word out across Milan with over 900 digital billboards and 600 minutes’ worth of primetime spots on Italian TV.

The culmination of the slate of #All4Climate events surrounding Youth4Climate: Driving Ambition was a #Music4Climate concert for the ages at Milan’s massive Ippodromo Snai San Siro Summer Arena, a rocking event organized by C4C and MITE that generated tremendous climate-positive energy and that served as a powerful bridge between the conclusion of the youth summit and the start of Pre-COP26.

Photo by Leigh Vogel, Connect4Climate.

The September 30 show, streamed worldwide on A-Live TV, brought a diverse group of 100 performers together under the banner of Rockin’1000, the largest rock band on Earth. Seasoned musicians such as Daniele Silvestri and Martina Attili rocked out alongside special guests including European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, playing songs with inspiring messages of perseverance in the face of adversity and relentless hope for a better future.

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Bringing Youth Voices to COP26

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For this year’s long-anticipated COP26 climate conference, C4C worked to bring young people’s voices from Milan to Glasgow through a special partnership with the Walk With Amal project, which raises global awareness of refugee issues with a larger-than-life puppet of a young Syrian migrant named Little Amal.

Little Amal traveled from the border of Syria and Turkey to appear at COP26, where she shed light on climate change’s role in exacerbating the refugee crisis. For her November 9 walk along Millennium Bridge (just outside the SEC Centre where the COP was held), Little Amal carried with her a soundscape of Youth4Climate voices, gathered and curated for the occasion by C4C. The centerpiece of this engagement was a brand-new poem from longtime C4C friend and collaborator Ahmed Badr, a stirring call for solidarity and understanding across boundaries titled “Representation” Poem.

Don’t miss the official <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyOiEuUJRiM" style="text-decoration-line: none;">video performance of Ahmed’s poem</a> on our YouTube channel, and be sure to check out our handy <a href="https://www.connect4climate.org/initiative/how-cop26-responded-youth4cl…; style="text-decoration-line: none;">COP26 breakdown article</a> on how commitments at the COP squared with the demands of the Youth4Climate Manifesto.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyOiEuUJRiM]

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Launching the Max Thabiso Edkins Climate Ambassador Program

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We crowned 2021 with an announcement especially close to our hearts: the launch of the <a href="https://www.connect4climate.org/initiative/apply-now-max-thabiso-edkins…; style="text-decoration-line: none;">Max Thabiso Edkins Climate Ambassador Program</a>, a vital opportunity for up-and-coming young climate leaders around the world to both broaden their knowledge of international climate solutions and implement their own climate action initiatives on the ground in their communities.

Named in honor of our dear friend and colleague Max Thabiso Edkins, a true climate champion renowned far and wide for his irresistible enthusiasm for making the world a better place as well as his signature bow ties, this Program is the product of an exciting new partnership between C4C and the Global Youth Climate Network (GYCN), an initiative of the Y2Y community of young professionals at the World Bank Group.

We are accepting submissions through December 31, so if you know any young people out there making a difference who would want to follow in Max’s footsteps by being Climate Ambassadors, tell them to <a href="http://y2ycommunity.org/gycn-climate-ambassador-program-2022/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">apply now</a>!

Photo by Kaia Rose, Connect4Climate.

How COP26 Responded to the Youth4Climate Manifesto

At the Youth4Climate: Driving Ambition summit in Milan, hundreds of young delegates from all over the world worked together to draft a seminal

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Youth Driving Ambition

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On the central theme of Youth Driving Ambition, the writers of the Youth4Climate Manifesto called on policymakers to open new avenues to young people and empower them to participate in the process of developing and implementing climate action. In response, the <a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cma2021_L16_adv.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Glasgow Climate Pact</a> included a call “to ensure meaningful youth participation and representation in multilateral, national and local decision-making processes.” Additionally, Italian Minister for Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani announced at the COP that the Youth4Climate summit will henceforth be an annual event, giving young people a direct pipeline to the latest climate negotiations.

In particular, the Manifesto called for renewed commitment to elevating, respecting and acting on the voices of indigenous people, women, and the most vulnerable. At COP26, the <a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/Improved%20Marrakech%20…; style="text-decoration-line: none;">Improved Marrakech Partnership for Enhancing Ambition</a> incorporated this message into its charter along with a five-year plan emphasizing accountability to stakeholders. A number of countries, including Bolivia, Canada, Ecuador, the US, and the UK, made fresh commitments to Gender Action, investing in women’s leadership and initiating a policy of conducting gender breakdowns in all statistical climate analyses moving forward.

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Sustainable Recovery

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Within the Sustainable Recovery theme, the Youth4Climate Manifesto urged all countries to rapidly transition towards renewable energy to reach net zero emissions by 2030. The percentage of the world covered by net zero targets now stands at 90%, up from 30% two years ago, but most of these plans do not meet the ambitious timeline called for in the Manifesto. To help push for increased ambition, The Glasgow Climate Pact sped up the timeline for countries to submit stronger Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), requesting that world leaders “revisit and strengthen” their 2030 targets by COP27 next year.

The Manifesto stressed the role of innovation and technological development in driving the needed changes, a message which 35 world leaders at COP26 took to heart in their accession to the new <a href="https://ukcop26.org/breakthrough-agenda-launching-an-annual-global-chec…; style="text-decoration-line: none;">Glasgow Breakthrough Agenda</a>, which aims to accelerate the development and deployment of clean technologies around the world this decade—all while driving down costs. The Breakthrough Agenda’s primary objectives are making renewable energy structures attractive alternatives in the most population-heavy regions of the world by 2030 and empowering developing countries to take advantage of clean energy.

In line with the Manifesto’s call for collaboration with the private sector on green energy, the Glasgow Financial Alliance has committed over $130 trillion (USD) in private capital to reshaping the global economy. Spanning 45 countries, these commitments will go a long way toward making net zero a reality.

One point youth leaders were very clear on in their text is the need to abandon entirely the exploration and extraction of fossil fuels. Although COP26 did not deliver the ambition asked for by young people on this front, their calls for action did spur some progress in Glasgow. Denmark and Costa Rica launched the <a href="https://beyondoilandgasalliance.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Beyond Oil & Gas Alliance</a> with countries such as France, Sweden, and Ireland, who all committed to a managed phase-out of oil and gas production within their borders. The UK assembled a coalition of 190 countries committed to the rapid upscaling of green power and the <a href="https://unfccc.int/news/end-of-coal-in-sight-at-cop26" style="text-decoration-line: none;">abolishment of coal</a> by the 2030s for major economies and the 2040s for the rest of the world. The Glasgow Climate Pact also marked the first time that a COP decision text has directly referenced the need to move away from coal reliance and fossil fuel subsidies.

In the push toward a sustainable future, the Manifesto was resolute that developed nations must assist developing nations in their implementation of the energy transition. On this front, COP26 saw some big announcements, including the launch of a World Bank trust fund that will mobilize $200 million over the next decade to support the decarbonization of road transport in emerging and developing economies. The UK government’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-funding-to-support-developing-cit…; style="text-decoration-line: none;">Urban Climate Action program (UCAP)</a> was also a standout, pledging $27.5 million in funding to support cities across Africa, Asia and Latin America as they pursue net zero.

Accounting for “loss and damage” was key to the youth leaders’ conception of Sustainable Recovery, and COP took some needed steps in this regard. Section VI of the Glasgow Climate Pact empowered the Santiago Network to ramp up its ongoing efforts to address loss and damage worldwide while bolstering resilience to future climate impacts. While COP26 may not have delivered the level of progress hoped for by Youth4Climate delegates, loss and damage became a central topic in the negotiations. In the Pact, countries agreed to start a dialogue in anticipation of COP27, which was viewed by the Alliance of Small Island States as “a key step towards the creation of a loss and damage finance facility.”

The cultivation of nature-based farming practices and climate-smart agriculture is a major priority of the Youth4Climate Manifesto—no surprise, given the extent and impact of our food systems. Responding to this call to action, 45 nations and 95 high-profile companies at COP26 pledged to redouble action and investment toward <a href="https://unfccc.int/news/nations-and-businesses-commit-to-create-sustain…; style="text-decoration-line: none;">safeguarding nature and transitioning agriculture</a> to a sustainable model in the years to come. Further, more than 100 countries pledged to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-01/100-nations-pledge-t…; style="text-decoration-line: none;">halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation</a> by 2030 with the help of $19 billion in allocated public and private funds.

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Non-State Actors’ Engagement

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The vision articulated in the Youth4Climate Manifesto extended beyond governments, stressing the need to engage non-state actors in the building of a green future as well. One key means of facilitating this sort of engagement, wrote the youth delegates, is “promoting and simplifying the processes for equitable global technology transfer,” both among research institutions and between those institutions and private industry. At COP26, the UK-led <a href="https://ukcop26.org/breakthrough-agenda-launching-an-annual-global-chec…; style="text-decoration-line: none;">Breakthrough Agenda</a>, which enlisted 42 nations, aligned itself with this aim, pledging to ramp up the development and rollout of innovative green tech worldwide. And in a dedicated “clean technology development drive,” 35 world leaders committed to increasing their countries’ ambition on both producing green tech and making it more affordable for the average consumer this decade.

It’s no secret that the wasteful “fast fashion” industry is long overdue for a pivot to sustainable practices, and the drafters of the Manifesto demanded the fleshing-out of “guidelines to elaborate … ethical, sustainable, and climate-friendly” approaches to clothing production. Rolled out at COP26, the updated <a href="https://unfccc.int/news/fashion-industry-steps-up-climate-ambition-with…; style="text-decoration-line: none;">UNFCCC Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action</a>, to which 130 companies and 41 supporting organizations are signatories, lays out a plan to source all of the industry’s electricity sustainably by 2030, abandoning coal power for good. It also offers guidelines on the responsible sourcing of raw materials.

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Climate-Conscious Society

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A vital and overarching goal of the Manifesto was the cultivation of a climate-conscious society worldwide. Recognizing the deepening impacts of the climate crisis, the document called for the proliferation of knowledge of “the interconnected implications for the environment and nature as a whole,” with special emphasis on addressing biodiversity and embracing nature-based solutions. At COP26, 95 leading UK companies, including Burberry and ITV, committed to a <a href="https://spnews.com/british-businesses-pledge-naturepositive/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">“Nature Positive” approach</a> moving forward, pledging to make sustainability an integral part of their brand identity.

A key component of the push toward broader climate-consciousness outlined in the Manifesto was the empowerment of underrepresented people everywhere to safely share their lived experiences of the climate crisis. To encourage diversity within party delegations, the COP26 Presidency funded the attendance of six female negotiators from underdeveloped countries, and the “Advancing Gender Equality in Climate Action” event on <a href="https://unfccc.int/topics/gender/events-meetings/gender-day-other-event…; style="text-decoration-line: none;">Gender Day at the COP</a> saw numerous countries come forward with fresh pledges to support women and girls in sharing their climate stories. Bolivia, for instance, issued a commitment focused on getting indigenous and Afro-Bolivian women into climate leadership positions, while Belgium committed $58 million to a 5-year Sahel Climate Program focused on the needs of women and girls. Norway also laid out a new initiative to raise the impact of women and girls at both the national and international levels of climate policymaking.