How can youth voices be amplified in global climate negotiations? Join us on 10 May for an online dialogue with Mary Robinson (The Elders) and international youth climate leaders.
This event is free.
Event Information
Open to
- All
Availability
- Yes
Cost
- Free
Organiser
-
Julia Kreienkamp
Young people were at the forefront of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly known as COP26. With a combination of grassroots activism, policy advocacy, and climate leadership, the voices, perspectives, and demands of young people were heard loud and clear. Nonetheless, the extent to which such rhetoric translated into tangible impacts is unclear at best. Despite constituting nearly 40% of the world population and bearing the brunt of the climate crisis, the global youth population continues to face institutional challenges in environmental governance, often being under-represented, if not tokenised, in international climate negotiations and policymaking. Furthermore, amid growing calls for climate justice, the question of intergenerational equity and its implications on climate policy remains unresolved. Bringing together prominent global climate figures in the lead-up to COP27, this public dialogue will explore what it truly means to give youth a seat at the table, and how we will collectively get there.
This event is hosted by the UCL Global Governance Institute with support from UCL Grand Challenges and the UCL Global Environment Domain.
About the Speakers
Mary Robinson
Chair of The Elders; Former President of Ireland; Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Mary Robinson is a founding member of The Elders and was appointed Chair in November 2018. As a tireless champion of equality and justice, she has travelled to countries around the world, meeting with global leaders, political leaders and civil society, to promote peace, ethical leadership and human rights. Mary Robinson was the first woman President of Ireland and served for seven years from 1990 to 1997 as a principled and transformative leader who fought for equality throughout her time in office. As UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 until 2002, Mary Robinson integrated human rights into the United Nations system. Between 2013 and 2016, she served as the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy in three roles; first for the Great Lakes region of Africa, then on Climate Change and then as Special Envoy on El Niño and Climate until the historic Paris Agreement on Climate Change in 2015. She is a strong advocate for climate justice and intergenerational dialogue and led the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice from 2010 until its planned closure in 2019. She was appointed Adjunct Professor for Climate Justice at Trinity College Dublin in 2019. (Photo credit: The Elders)
Aliza Ayaz
At just 23 years old, Aliza Ayaz is the world's youngest United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, an international climate, health, and youth activist as well as a student. Having graduated with a distinction in her Bachelor's of Population Health Sciences, she has also now completed a Masters in Infectious Disease Epidemiology from University College London. Aliza volunteers much of her time to climate work, consulting individuals, local councils, politicians, and companies on how they can best achieve net-zero. At UCL, at her second year at university, she founded and ran the first ever Climate Action student club. Her multi-ethnic background and passionate campaigning have seen her leading several climate education campaigns in schools across the UK.
Amanda Björksell
Amanda Björksell is the Swedish youth delegate to the UNFCCC and UNEA, representing the National Council of Swedish Youth Organizations. With many years of experience from the youth civil society and the climate movement, she is now advocating for a strong youth voice for climate justice within the UN as well as on a local and national level. Amanda is a Masters student in Agriculture, with further experience of working in politics, the Church of Sweden and with international development.
Eleonore Buffet-Heuser
Eleonore Buffet-Heuser is currently an MPhil Environmental Policy student at the University of Cambridge, having previously done a masters in European Governance at the College of Europe in Bruges and her undergraduate in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at King’s College London. As Liberian party delegate, she was the negotiator for the Loss and Damage negotiations at COP26. She also assisted the Minister of Agriculture and organised bilateral meetings during the World Leader Summit in Glasgow. She is French, British and German and also speaks Italian, Spanish and Russian.
Vladislav Kaim
Vladislav Kaim is a young Moldovan economist and climate action and sustainability advocate with vast experience at the UN level, as well as on multiple national and local platforms in Moldova, Russia and Sweden. He has a bachelor’s degree in international economics from the Moscow State University of International Relations (MGIMO) and a master’s degree in economics from Lund University (Sweden). In July 2020, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres appointed Vladislav to be part of his inaugural Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change, tasked with ensuring a substantial role for youth voices in the implementation of the Secretary General’s Climate Strategy. Vladislav is the first Eastern European young activist in this position.
Heeta Lakhani
Heeta Lakhani is a climate educator, with a Master’s of Science in Environmental Studies and Resource Management from TERI University, India. She is a firm believer in the power of youth participation in grassroots and international processes. She was introduced to the world of the UNFCCC at COP21 in 2015 and, since then, has been active locally and internationally, working towards creating change-makers who combat the climate crisis with knowledge-based action. At COP25 in Madrid, Heeta was elected the Global Focal Point for YOUNGO for 2020-21. She is now working on training young people to be effective negotiators in the UNFCCC intergovernmental processes.
Mohamed Ali Raddaoui
Mohamed Ali Raddaoui is a climate negotiator with the Tunisian COP delegation. He is the founder of a climate action NGO and Vice-President of a UNDP initiative that focused on social entrepreneurship for climate. Currently, he is working on two UN Women climate projects for the MENA region and climate advocacy more broadly.
Archana Soreng
Archana Soreng is an Indigenous environmental activist and researcher from India and a member of the United Nations Secretary General’s Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change. She works to document, preserve, and promote traditional knowledge and cultural practices of indigenous communities.
Marco Yáñez Marín
Marco Yáñez Marín is a climate negotiator and party delegate with the Chilean delegation to COP26. In addition, he is a COY16 delegate, a Law graduate from Universidad San Sebastian (Santiago, Chile), and the President of the United Nations Club (Universidad San Sebastian).
Xuan Zi Han (Chair)
Zi Han is a climate advocate with YOUNGO, the youth constituency of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and a second-year student of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) at the UCL Department of Political Science. Zi Han is the Co-Lead of the COP26 Global Youth Statement, a climate policy document drafted in consultation with more than 40,000 young people from more than 135 countries around the world. In addition, he serves as Executive Director of the UCL Climate Action Society and is a member of the UNEP Youth Task Force of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030).
Other events in this series
Close
