It is not very often to find young people’s voices being prioritised and made part of significant decision-making process, however, a new dawn is upon us with COP27 ensuring that youth voices form part of this year’s climate talks at Sharm-El-Sheik in Egypt.
The COP27 Summit has been underway from 6 November 2022 and four days later on 10 November, history was made, when the first ever Youth-Led Climate Forum – the Children and Youth – presented their key demands.
In its bid to shape future generations, The Children’s Radio Foundation that has since 2006 trained youth reporters in 10 African countries and reached over a million listeners through broadcasting radio shows on various topics such as education, health and gun violence among others, sent youth reporters from South Africa, Zambia and the DRC to take part in the engagements.
South African youth reporter Siya Mokoena from Emalahleni, Mpumalanga said the experience was overwhelming to say the least. “Being young in a global diplomacy platform like COP is a really big challenge because no one gets young views. It is unlike other social challenges like unemployment where we can literally fight and amplify our voices.
“It resurfaced to me at these discussions that young people are not getting what they want when it comes to climate change-related issues, simply because our world leaders think we are too young to make decisions”, Mokoena said.
Africa has the largest population of young people and it has the fasted growing youth population. The aftermath of climate change has drastic impacts on health, education, nutrition and the future of children and youth who are exposed to extreme weather conditions, water scarcity and forced displacement, to name a few challenges.
It is these challenges that Mokoena said require amplified youth voices in seeking climate solutions because they are the ones who will inherit the planet in future: “Young people are the future. The 4th Industrial Revolution is here and for example, the old generation has the audacity to say things like ‘yinto zenu’….so in as much as we are innovative in technology, it must be an indication that we can find innovative solutions towards climate change crises.
“To the young people, I would like to say, climate change is real. The quicker we start doing something about it, the better our futures will be. Take the day-to-day solutions seriously, for instance instead of driving a car, take a walk”, he added.
