International Youth Day celebrates the crucial role young people play as partners of change and how they embrace the opportunitty to shape the future of this planet.
In a recent speech at an event organised in cooperation with the Elders and SciencePo Mary Robinson urgend young people to take action when saying: “We need you [young people] if we are going to get to the transformational leadership that will be required to ensure that our world stays below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial standard.”
“In essence, that means we must reach zero carbon emissions by 2050. And the world is not on course for that at present. We also need to achieve this goal equitably and fairly, which is the climate justice approach.”
Four messages have been highlighted by the Foundation as relevant to achieving climate justice:
- We must begin with the injustice of climate change – the impacts it is having on the poorest and most vulnerable who have done least to cause the crisis.
- We need to understand and respond to the gender dimensions of climate shocks which undermine already poor livelihoods.
- Young people should call for the scale of transformative leadership that is needed for an equitable climate deal.
- Young people in different regions of the world need to link together and create a constituency of demand for practical actions that move us away from fossil fuel energy.
Related Links
Event on Climate Change, Leadership and Young People (Elders & Science Po)
Marvin Nala, Youth Activist with Greenpeace, explains the climate justice narrative