Youngsters in international negociations
Every year, just before the Conference of Parties (COP, reuniting the signatory countries to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change), takes place the international Conference of Youth (COY). This event gathers young people from all over the world to discuss and prepare the negotiations with the policy makers, aiming to assure that the interests and concerns of youth are taken into account. The COY is an official part of the larger COP process, under the supervision of YOUNGO, the children and youth constituency of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
During the previous months, Local Conferences of Youth (LCOY) take place all around the world, reuniting youngsters involved in climate activism or interested in the subject. Numerous workshops take place for capacity building, policy training, advocacy writing, on global climate subjects but also on territorial issues. The local discussions are then reported back to the COY for further discussion and broader representation.
More importantly, it is a space for young people to come together and share knowledge, ideas, and discuss how they feel about climate change and all the related pressing issues.
LCOY 2025: Gabonese youth assert their climate leadership
Focus on LCOY in France
In France, two youth organizations, Jeunes Ambassadeurs pour le Climat and CliMates, have been coordinating a LCOY at l'Académie du Climat (The Climate Academy) in Paris for several years. Designed, in accordance with the general values of COY, as a moment of training and reflection for the French young people, they proposed different workshops around themes such as international climate negotiations, biodiversity, popular ecology, mitigation and adaptation, gender, finance loss and damage.
Amongst the scheduled activities, CliMates animated two emblematic examples of their awareness-raising workshops: "COP in My City" and "HeatWave, ma ville contre-attaque".
Heir to the Theatre of Negotiations (another project showcased in WTFutures), COP in My City is a simulation of a UN international climate summit where participants represent a country, a city, or a sector of activity. Together they play the negotiations and must reach an agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and face climate change. But they also have to defend their own interests. The whole exercise is indeed to find balance in this conflicting complexity.
"HeatWave, ma ville contre-attaque" (My city counterattacks) is also a simulation workshop in which each participant plays the role of a member of civil society. The city is facing the imminent arrival of an extreme heatwave in their city. By working together, these citizens will have to use strategy and creativity to implement innovative solutions to reduce the impact of the heatwave and help the population.
Young people's demands
Here is an example of some requests written during the french LCOY 2023:
- Inclusiveness in the negotiations: "The youth members of LCOY France 2023 want the COP to be a real opportunity for those most vulnerable to climate change to make their voices heard."
- Fair finance: "The youth of LCOY France 2023 demand the implementation of serious measures to combat tax evasion and the introduction of taxation on: dividends paid to private shareholders by large companies; super-profits when these are significantly higher than in previous years"
- Against techno-solutionism: "The youth of LCOY France 2023 oppose techno-solutionist distractions. Techno-solutionist carbon capture/sequestration projects only provide a partial response to the much more systemic crisis facing the climate and the living world in general."
- Transformational adaptation: "The youth of LCOY France 2023 demand the use of transformational adaptation projects, including nature-based solutions that are beneficial to biodiversity, ecosystem integrity and restoration, and respect the rights of indigenous peoples, recalling the risks of maladaptation associated with incremental adaptation."
- Local, feminist, and ecological democracy: "The youth of LCOY France 2023 want a more representative and participatory democracy. We propose giving more space and power to residents by establishing citizen conventions with randomly selected participants and mandatory representation quotas."
WTFutures chose to present these workshops between youngsters, and particularly the advocacy writing exercises that come after, as forms of futuring. These practices may seem very institutional, however the young participants are still taking time to formulate their thoughts on climate futures, on how to adapt, on which elements they want to be taken into account. They also come up with scenarios and strategies to enable the future they want to live in.
The COY and LCOY are therefore relevant examples of how youngsters are engaging in imagining and building the climate futures they want.