The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is set to host the 18th UN Climate Change Conference of Youth (COY18) in November on the sidelines of the upcoming 28th session of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28).
The COY18 event will be organized in cooperation with the Arab Youth Center in Abu Dhabi, the American University of Sharjah (AUS), and the Green House Research Center, affiliated with New York University in Abu Dhabi.
The COY conference takes place right before the COP event in the same host country as the COP, with the aim of serving as a space for capacity building and policy training in order to prepare young people for their participation in COP.
COY officially started in 2005 in Montreal ahead of COP11 to make youth voices heard.
The conference, organized and led by the youth, seeks to empower youth voices on various international platforms, offering them the opportunity to discuss and support international climate change policies and promote change on local and global levels.
The annual conference, organized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s youth arm (YOUNGO) under the UNFCCC, aligns with the work of the global network of child and youth activists and NGOs shaping international climate change policies and formally representing youth interests within the UNFCCC processes.
This edition of the youth conference focuses on youth contributions to the conference’s three main components: policy documents, capacity building, and skill-building workshops, which bring together collective demands from children and youth worldwide.
Acting Head of Sustainability at AUS, Julia Carlo, stated, “As an institution committed to sustainability and climate change, we are thrilled to collaborate with the youth arm of the UNFCCC and other participants on this significant platform. It offers a space for young leaders to exchange ideas and develop skills that enable them to contribute meaningfully to climate action.”
The UNFCCC’s youth arm and COY18’s host entities will collaboratively commit to preparing global youth to engage with global climate discussions and contribute to COY18’s primary components and its official outcome document, and the Global Youth Statement (GYS), contributing to the successful organization of an international youth climate event.
