YOUNGGO - Youth & the Paris Agreement
Henry David Bayoh, national coordinator for the Sierra Leone Consortium Climate Change and Sustainable Development (SLeCCSuD) - pictured with mic - made a well-received presentation about the Paris Agreement and the Youth in the just concluded conference organised for civil society organizations (CSOs) in Gabon Libreviller.
Henry David Bayoh, National Coordinator and Focal Point for the Sierra Leone Consortium for Climate Change and Sustainable Development (SLeCCSuD), presented slides on ‘Perspective of the Paris Agreement and the Youth. In his presentation, Henry gave an overview of what the Paris Climate Change Agreement is, reiterating that the overall Agreement aims at combating climate change and promotes actions and investment towards a low carbon, resilient and sustainable future.
Henry highlighted major issues of the Paris Agreement which are: • Limit temperature rise 'well below' 2°C, and to “pursue efforts to limit temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.” • First universal climate agreement. • Helping poorer nations. • Publishing greenhouse gas reduction targets – Carbon neutral by 2050.
Henry explained the impacts of climate change on young people, noting that these impacts are especially alarming for young people, rendering them particularly vulnerable. Henry informed participants of youth participation in UNFCCC negotiations which has started since COP 5. He maintained that prior to COP 15/CMP 5, UNFCCC Secretariat granted a provisional constituency status to young people. This new constituency he said, is referred to as Youth NGO (YOUNGO). He further explained the significance of the constituency status to YOUNGO.
Explaining why it is important to involve young people in the UNFCCC negotiations, Henry stated that young people have contributed to deliberations at meetings of the COP/CMP through plenary interventions, web-only submissions to the COP/CMP, submissions to the subsidiary bodies and direct lobbying with delegates. He noted that the contributions of young people can be classified on the basis of their merits as adding: 1) moral/equity-based value; 2) indirect value to the outcome of the negotiations; and 3) direct value to the outcome of the negotiations.
Henry also highlighted the challenges of climate change on youths which include migration by youths to safer places, conflicts due to resource scarcity, school drop-out, low income at household level, unemployment and poverty increase, and chronic illness due to exposure to pollution.
In his closing slides, Henry noted that the way forward is to enhance youth participation in the UNFCCC negotiations, including the Pais Agreement, and should be done on a short, medium and long-term basis.
