Ban Ki-moon, Amina Mohammed and Patrick Verkooijen take on youth demands ahead of COP27
Rotterdam, 5 September 2022.- Young people from around the world have launched a global youth movement for adaptation calling on world leaders to take urgent and bold action to adapt our world to the increasing impacts of the climate crisis.
The “Youth Dialogue on Adaptation Action: Delivering on the Glasgow Climate Pact” convened by the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) and its Youth Advisory Panel took place on 3-4 September in Rotterdam on the eve of the Africa Adaptation Summit.
With climate-related disasters striking everywhere, from dramatic floods in Pakistan to deadly heatwaves and droughts sweeping across continents, young people have shown this week that they are taking the lead and adapting their communities while increasing their calls on governments to adopt ambitious policy and increase finance for adaptation.
The conclusions of the two-day dialogue and the seven regional forums that took place throughout the year are enshrined in the #Youth4Adaptation Appeal. The document “is a call to action by young leaders to decision-makers to adapt our world to the cascading impacts of the climate emergency by providing an urgent, ambitious and robust response to deliver on the Glasgow Climate Pact”.
The #Youth4Adaptation Appeal contains four major asks from the youth to world leaders: promote education, capacity-building and upskilling of young people on climate adaptation; provide an inclusive and participatory environment for youth in climate adaptation decision-making processes; empower youth entrepreneurs and young professionals to advance the adaptation agenda; and increase financing for youth-led adaptation initiatives through adapted and flexible funding mechanisms.
GCA CEO Prof. Dr. Patrick Verkooijen met with the youth delegates and committed to take on their asks and present them to international leaders at this week’s Africa Adaptation Summit and at the crucial UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
“We are in a climate emergency today and what we will see tomorrow will be exponentially worse. You are the generation that will be the most affected. I urge you to be more vocal on the adaptation agenda. Together we can lead the change for a climate-resilient world”, Patrick Verkooijen told the youth delegates during a visit to the GCA’s offices, the biggest floating office in the world.
Former UN Secretary-General and GCA Board Chairman Ban Ki-moon and UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed participated in the Dialogue and commended the youth’s determination to act on the climate adaptation agenda. Both leaders encouraged the young delegates to keep pressing governments to deliver on their promises ahead of the ‘African COP27’ taking place in November.
NOTES TO EDITORS
About the Global Center on Adaptation
The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) is an international organization that works as a solutions broker to accelerate action and support for adaptation solutions—from the international to the local—in partnership with the public and private sectors. Founded in 2018, GCA operates from its headquarters in the largest floating office in the world, located in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. GCA has a worldwide network of regional offices in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; Dhaka, Bangladesh and Beijing, China.
For media enquiries, please contact Gabriela Díaz, GCA Communications Officer, gabriela.diaz@gca.org
More information and resources about the Youth Dialogue on Adaptation Action are available here.
PHOTO CREDIT: Global Center on Adaptation
