COP29 and the power of youth: Building healthier, educated generations for climate resilience

COP29 is a vital opportunity for positive and productive youth participation in climate change efforts. Previous conferences have not emphasized youth involvement to the extent needed, and therefore more concrete action is crucial.

Climate change is a unique phenomenon that has a considerable impact on youth. Youth participation during COP29 is critical in enhancing governmental action to tackle climate change.

As the UNFCCC has pointed out, half of the world’s population is aged under 30, hence youth exclusion from climate policy would be a significant deterrent to global climate management.

Such demography causes ever-increasing societal pressures, necessitating a shift in approaching youth engagement across climate-resilience mechanisms.

The empirical evidence supporting the urgency of youth-focused climate action is compelling. A study by UNICEF found that 1 billion children are at extremely high risk of the impacts of climate change.

Another factor increasing this vulnerability is environmental health hazards. According to World Health Organization statistics, air pollution affects 93 percent of children aged under 15.

Climate change is a unique phenomenon that has a considerable impact on youth

Majed Al-Qatari

These statistics emphasize a problem affecting youth populations’ access to public healthcare and climate resilience. COP29 should focus on rebuilding the concept of health resilience and do this with the greatest priority.

Climate change adversely affects the young generation in many ways. The negative impacts of climate change on the health of the youth are alarming. The WHO has estimated that deaths due to climate change will increase by 250,000 every year.

The above mortality rates call for COP29 to consider health protection measures for vulnerable young persons in focused ways.

The existing climate education situation presents significant challenges. UNESCO’s assessment reveals that only 53 percent of countries incorporate climate change into their curriculum frameworks.

A survey by Plan International highlighted this deficit in education, showing that 82 percent of respondents aged 15 to 24 were not well informed about climate change policies in their countries. This deficit in education is the critical barrier to establishing generations with sufficient climate change literacy to support mitigation policies.

Nevertheless, youth groups such as Fridays for Future indicate that climate activism may be effectively initiated by youth, since millions of people have joined. Such divergence between the activist and policy actor roles implies that there is more unexplored capacity of youth in climate governance.

The implementation of COP29 represents a critical juncture for integrating youth perspectives into global climate policy. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, there are indications that youth engagement will aid in developing rational climate resilience solutions.

This is essential because as the World Economic Forum pointed out, increased youth participation is an important strategy for addressing climate change.

As we approach COP29, the imperative for substantive youth inclusion in climate policy becomes increasingly evident.

COP29 must become a catalyst for youth-engaged climate policy based on the intersection of health risks, education inequity and policy disenfranchisement of the young. The failure to exploit this opportunity will not only miss climate change mitigation potential, but would also, arguably, lead to the absence of an entire generation from the climate change decision-making process.

COP29 can shift how we approach youth involvement in climate action. The evidence is overwhelming: From the UNICEF risk assessment to the WHO health-impact projections, there are clear signs that young people must be at the heart of climate action.

Ultimately, the successes of COP29 will be determined by policy results and by the extent to which youth can take part as agents of change in developing climate-resilient societies.