The world’s attention is once more narrowing on the climate agenda, and this year Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, is playing host to the premier climate forum.
The yearly Conference of Parties (or COPs) – convened under the United Nations – brings together world leaders, monarchs, entrepreneurs, industry titans, faith and lobby groups, Indigenous groups, NGOs, and many more.
However, year after year, and facing formidable odds, young people also attend, demanding their place at the table and arguing that because they are the ones who will live out the decisions made at COP, their voices matter and must be listened to.
Youth worldwide – and particularly in Asia and Pacific countries – are contending with uncertain futures. Still, climate breakdown and biodiversity loss are inevitable realities young people will have to face in one way or another. This is far from a future proposition because, in many instances, young people are already on the frontline of the climate crisis, grappling with the consequences of a warming world.
However, very far from passive bystanders, the members of Generation Z are standing up and shaping the world around them, transforming the politics of the possible by demanding a just and habitable future.
Mass protests, like School Strike for Climate and Fridays for Future, have driven out hundreds of thousands throughout the Asia-Pacific – from Dili to Dharamshala, from Suva to Sydney. Young people have also been taking the fight to courtrooms all over the world, as in recent case in South Korea where plaintiffs, some as young as 12 years old, successfully argued that government failures to act on climate change constitute a violation of their fundamental rights.
The Diplomat spoke with five young attendees from Asia and the Pacific attending COP29 about their hopes and expectations of climate diplomacy.
The climate crisis is manifesting in different forms throughout the region, from sea level rise in Micronesia, threatening life and culture, to unprecedented fires in Australia and devastating storms in Japan. One thing unites the Gen-Zers at COP29: an urgent call to act and act now.
Niharika Kapoor, 27, from Uttarakhand, India, is attending COP29 with the India Youth Climate Network. She was clear that although some progress had been made, “there is no doubt that there has been dangerous human interference with the climate system, evidenced by the increasingly severe impacts of climate change.”
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the convening arm of the U.N. responsible for the yearly COP, “is one part of the solution, and it has been a valuable one, but more needs to be done within UNFCCC-related processes and outside of them,” Kapoor continued.
Joshua Joseph Pangelinan, 25, a climate finance specialist and Micronesia Delegate Attache from Pohnpei, Micronesia, in a similar vein, told The Diplomat that measuring the success of COP is complex. It has “been an extremely helpful platform for Parties to agree and mobilize resources,” he said. However, in “the context of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), COP has not delivered enough on its ambition to maintain the global temperature on a pathway to 1.5 degrees C, therefore jeopardizing the livelihood of many atoll nations.”
Young people engage in the COP process in various ways, protesting outside the gates and gaveling decisions inside. Genevieve Jiva, a 32-year-old from Suva, Fiji, has seen a fair share of COPs from different perspectives. Jiva attended her first COP as part of a student delegation in 2015, and over the years, has participated in a variety of roles, both “outside the tent” as a civil society observer and in an official capacity: She is attending this year’s COP29 as the manager of climate change for the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change for the Government of Fiji.
“Young people have an incredibly important role to play at COP,” she said. “Their perspectives, stories, and proposals are valuable and can have a significant impact.” The yearly COPs are still relevant, but “progress happens over time.”
The prospect of working at international fora, like COP, with its U.N. affiliation, is an attractive goal for many young people. Yet Eliza Chaney, 22, from Melbourne, Australia, attending with Global Voices, said young people probably shouldn’t fully trust that their best interests are represented at COP29. “Vested interests and money are very powerful incentives and to be frank, I think long-term investment in future generations is a lofty ideal unfortunately few subscribe to,” she lamented.
“In some ways, yes, these sorts of fora are essentially manifestations of global power dynamics between countries, particularly the ‘Global North’ and ‘South,’” Chaney continued. “I think in other ways, however, particularly with the proliferation of social media presence and coverage of these events, we are starting to see spaces for ‘minority’ voices, like those of young people or smaller, less powerful nations, to be heard.”
Reflecting on a potential career in climate diplomacy, she continued, “Like growing up and realizing Santa isn’t real, much of the things you dream of as a young person, you come to realize are deeply flawed or even non-existent, and that’s sort of part of growing up.”
Still, going to a COP meeting can be the first important step. “Sure, none of us are likely going to be the lead negotiators for our country, but… we might just come back with a bit of fire in our belly and represent our own best interest in other ways back home,” Chaney said.
For Nanako Kaji, a 16-year-old high school student from Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture attending her first COP as a delegate from the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability, the chance to go to COP29 was a “valuable opportunity to participate” and meet other young people working in climate diplomacy. Like Chaney, she saw COP29 as an opening to learn about the climate crisis, lessons she’d take back home to build coalitions within her communities.