Youth #TellBanKiMoon at the UN Climate Talks

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will host a meeting with youth who are currently attending the UN Climate Talks.

The virtual call between New York and Bonn will take place this Thursday, 13 June, 18:30-18:45 CET, and participants will be able to tune in through webcast and can engage on twitter using the #TellBanKiMoon hashtag to send their messages and ideas to the Secretary General on issues related to youth, climate change and intergenerational equity.

During the current round of climate negotiations, YOUNGO, the official youth constituency to The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), have stressed upon parties to institutionalise the principle of intergenerational Equity within the proposed 2015 climate change agreement.

In the midst of disputes between Russia and other parties this past week that have held up parts of the UNFCCC process, YOUNGO urged Poland, the hosts of the next climate conference (COP19), to inject ambition into the negotiations. Youth also pushed Poland to take the opportunity to make COP19 a pivotal point in history, where they can unite with the European Union and show the rest of the world how to tackle climate issues responsibly.

Addressing youth earlier this year, the Secretary-General called on the world’s youth to take the helm in steering the international community through its turbulent period of economic and political transition and towards a more “prosperous, equitable and peaceful future”. In response, youth are calling the Secretary General to ensure that they will be represented and given the space to indeed take a steering role in the high-level climate meeting of world leaders that Ban Ki-moon plans to convene next year, in order to mobilise political will and scale up commitments for the 2015 agreement.

Already in Bonn, YOUNGO helped to launch the Youth in Action  report. The publication, which features YOUNGO, highlights concrete action young people are taking to incite their governments to scale up action on climate change and raise ambition towards a post-2020 climate change regime.

Youth offered a reminder to negotiators at Bonn that “people’s lives and our futures are ticking away”. Of all the participants involved in the UN Climate Conference in Bonn, it will be youth who will grow up in the world that is currently being negotiated.