BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Young people attending the United Nations climate talks have a lot to be angry about. They have lost loved ones and months of school. They have lost homes, family farms and connections to their families’ homelands.
However, they have not lost hope. Not yet.
“It has become so tiring for me to be just a poster child,” said Marinel Ubaldo, who at age 16 had watched two super-sized typhoons in succession devastate entire communities in her native Philippines. Missing part of high school in the aftermath because there was no school to go back to was a wake-up call. Now 27, COP29 will be the sixth time she has attended the summit where leaders are negotiating the future she will inherit.
“I think I am very pessimistic, but I am sure that this COP can actually bring more clarity,” she said.
Activists take part in a demonstration at the COP29 UN climate summit, Saturday, November 16, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Her pessimism is not unfounded. Fewer leaders were present this year, against a backdrop of uncertainty as political will on climate breaks down in major countries like the US and Germany. Although many passionate young people want to protest, this will be the third COP in a row in an authoritarian country with stricter controls on protests and expression. And for many of the young people most affected by climate extremes, getting to the conference is simply difficult and expensive.
“We have the constant challenge of sometimes having youth forums with spaces on the periphery of the spaces for decision makers,” said Felipe Paullier, assistant secretary-general for youth at the United Nations youth agency. That is why the UN has made efforts to internalize the role of youth in the climate talks, he said.
And climate change has a disproportionate impact on children around the world. Their growing bodies have a harder time coping with extreme heat, which also leads to an increase in premature births and malnutrition in children, says Kitty van der Heijden, UNICEF Assistant Secretary-General.
“We are simply not doing well enough for children in this world. We are failing children,” she said.
All this means that young people feel more burdened than ever to speak out about climate change. And many of those who come to COP, and even those who don’t, said they feel tired — burdened by the knowledge that they show up to speak year after year and don’t have much to show. It. This was the third year in a row that projected global warming has not improved.
“I think for many young people from extremely climate-sensitive countries it is not really a choice” to speak out about climate change, says 20-year-old Fathimath Raaia Shareef from the Maldives.
Shareef’s grandmother migrated south to the small island’s capital, so she never had the chance to see what her family’s home island was like. Growing up, after hearing about sea level rise, she had recurring nightmares about her island sinking. She would wake up crying.
“How am I supposed to focus on anything else when my island, my homeland, is in danger?” she asked.
Francisco Vera Manzanares, 15, a climate activist from Colombia, speaks with other youth activists during a forum with young activists, Tuesday, November 12, 2024, at the COP29 UN climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
It’s that focus that brings many young people to the table, even as they question their faith in the possibility that international negotiations can bring about real change. Here at his fourth COP, 15-year-old Francisco Vera Manzanares from Colombia called the UN summit a necessary but “very difficult space” to be in. He thinks the slow pace of change in countries around the world is creating a “crisis of credibility” in the world. the institutions most needed to keep within reach the goals that require global cooperation.
“People listen to children. But let’s just say it’s different to listen than to hear,” he said.
That’s why he hopes more adults will help kids stand up for themselves in meaningful ways in a crisis where they have the most to lose — and the most to save.
‘They are our rights. It’s our future. It is our gift,” he said.
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Follow Melina Walling on X, formerly Twitter, @MelinaWalling.
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