The Conference of Parties (COP) is a United Nations Climate Change Conference that brings together world leaders, businesses, and Civil Society Organizations to discuss climate change issues. This year the COP27 is being held in Sharm-El- Sheikh in Egypt. The conference has been nicknamed "The African COP" because it provides a prime opportunity for Africa to address the climate change problems that face the continent.
The promise of innovation, clean technologies, and the importance of water and agriculture to the climate crisis will be among the key focus areas discussed during the conference. In addition to biodiversity loss, energy transition, decarbonization efforts, and finance, the role of science will be highlighted.
About Environmental Conservation & Climate change, The Youth Cafe's work seeks to increase climate change literacy programs, advocate for creating green jobs and create a collaborative platform where young people can actively engage and participate in finding solutions to environmental challenges.
The Youth Cafe has also developed a policy brief on African Youth and Climate Change- A policy Brief in Light of COP 27. The policy brief addresses significant themes concerning climate change and African youth engagement. Five focus areas concerning youth engagement in climate change decision-making are identified in the policy brief. They include loss and damage finance, gender, adaptation and agriculture, biodiversity, and renewable energy. Reasons why these focus areas are of concern for African youth, are elaborated on, followed by recommendations concerning these issues.
The latter portion of the policy brief summarises four challenges that African youth face regarding participation in climate matters: Political inclusion on the local and global stage, access to training opportunities, deterrents to participation in strikes and protests, and integration of climate change education. Details on these challenges and why they exist are given, followed by recommendations concerning these problems that African Youth face.