![Youths of COP: Muhammad Ibrahim]()
by admin | Jan 26, 2018 | #MYD, MYD2017, YOUNGO
Youths of COP: A brief Q&A with people met at COP23.
Q: Please tell me about yourself.
A: I am Muhammad Ibrahim and I come from Egypt. I am now a fifth-year dental student at Mansoura University. I am so passionate about environmental, climate change and sustainable development issues and sharing new ideas and experiences. I worked in lots of NGOs and students clubs which aims at serving the community in the fields I am passionate about.
Muhammad has been involved in the fight against climate change since 2015.
Q: What inspired you to be involved in the fight against climate change?
A: I started my journey with Climate Change and Sustainable Development in 2015 when I decided to reduce my meat consumption because of the livestock agriculture, which is one of the main reasons of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. I was accepted to participate in an Environmental and Cultural German-Egyptian Exchange Program. I am now the African CliMates Community officer and the COPinMyCity Regional Officer for CliMates, I also work as a member of its Administrative Council.
Muhammad is highly involved in CliMates.
Q: What are the topics you are following in this COP?
A: My main focus in COP23 was Adaptation; especially the adaptation fund for people who are expected to be Climate refugees if they will not provide with help. I focused on that because I am living in a developing country which will suffer sooner or later from climate change consequences and would like to find an improvement in this sector especially when we are watching this slow progress in the mitigation field. Developing nations are the biggest sufferers from developed countries’ contributions to Climate Change.
Q: How has your work with YOUNGO working group been?
A: We wrote a very strong policy paper to send our message as youths to the COP23 presidency. We wrote about the estimated 200 million people that could be displaced as a result of climate impacts by 2050 and how much is it important to start capacity building and technology transfer from developed nations to developing ones.
Q: What are the key messages you would like to share with youths in general?
A: In general, I would like youth to work more in their countries on increasing awareness and providing education for young people. Maybe climate change will be a very big problem for the next generations, therefore they should be aware enough.
Content and Media Provided by Muhammad Ibrahim
Edited and Arranged by Xiandi
![Youths of COP: Wing Wu]()
by admin | Jan 26, 2018 | #MYD, MYD2017, YOUNGO
Youths of COP: A brief Q&A with people met at COP23.
Q: Please tell me about yourself.
A: Graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in sustainable agricultural system, I started my journey improvising climate actions and innovations in China through various projects of China Youth Climate Action Network(CYCAN). Before joining CYCAN in spring 2017, I’ve actively engaged in student-initiatives and grassroots NGOs during my study, where I gained experiences working with projects focusing on youth engagement, intercultural education, and food advocacy.
Wing from CYCAN
Q: What inspired you to be involved in the fight against climate change?
A: There is a strong linkage between food, livelihood and climate change. My study provides me a perspective to reflect on the urgency of tackling climate change in terms of global food security. Industrial agriculture and intensive livestock production contribute a significant share to human-induced warming effects, meanwhile, consequences of climate change are continuously altering the natural landscape for food production, especially for the climate-vulnerable communities. The fight for global food security couldn’t be completed without addressing climate change issues.
Q: Could you highlight one of the projects you or your organization is involved right now?
A: With the Presidency of Fiji for COP 23, climate conference this year has a particular focus on climate justice. In China, there is also a huge economic and environmental gap between the East and West part of the country. People live in the Western regions of China encounter more frequent extreme weathers and have access to limited resources, thus their livelihood becomes extra vulnerable to climate shocks. The organization I work in CYCAN has initiated a field research project on climate adaption, which we aim to create a knowledge transfer and capacity building between young environmentalists and local communities in climate vulnerable regions. Through a series of workshop, case studies and field interviews, we encourage students to work together with the villagers and different stakeholders at the local level to strengthen their resilience and finding a sustainable approach for better livelihood strategies.
CYCAN’s field research project focuses on climate adaptation.
Q: What are the topics you are following in this COP?
A: In this COP, the negotiation topics that I follow are mainly on Loss and Damage, and gender justice. The meetings on Warsaw International Mechanism of Loss and Damage, unfortunately, had not made much real progress. The public observers were shut out of negotiation process after the first meeting. The urgent need for sufficient climate fund, technology, and knowledge exchange opportunities to the climate-vulnerable communities was failed to be given priority. However, not all negotiation scenes are looking so grim. There has been progressive steps taken to support the equal and meaningful female participation and promote gender-responsive climate policy in UNFCCC process. I was involved in the YOUNGO Women and Gender Justice working group, which was working together with the Women and Gender Constituency under the UNFCCC which pushed very strongly for the Gender Action Plan and finally got adopted through SBI by all parties last weekend.
Q: What are the key messages you would like to share with youths in general?
A: Like I shared in the previous question, climate negotiation is a complex process heavily involved with different political interests, as well as economic and environmental loss and gains on different levels. As the young environmentalists who’re engaging in the process, we have to be a little patient to accept the reality that it goes up and down. But don’t drop the hope yet, it doesn’t mean that we are impaired to make any impacts – follow your passion, learn from experiences, communicate with others and act now! Together we can make a difference.
Content and Media Provided by Wing Wu
Edited and Arranged by Xiandi
![Youths of COP: Harlino Nandha Prayudha]()
by admin | Jan 26, 2018 | #MYD, MYD2017, YOUNGO
Youths of COP: A brief Q&A with people met at COP23.
Q: Please tell me about yourself.
A: My name is Harlino Nandha Prayudha. I’m a student in Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia. As an agriculture student, I learned that climate issues really affecting agricultural sector and the future of the world. Deforestation, bad agricultural practices, the rise of waste and landfills contribute to the greenhouse effect which in turn lead to a disaster. I wholeheartedly agree with the making of the Paris Agreement and would like to emphasize that I am eager to pursue efforts that may reduce the risks and impacts of climate change. My involvement with climate change starts when I join IAAS (international association of students in agricultural and related sciences) Indonesia. I initiate a VCP (Village Concept Project) ‘Genteng Bagja’ as a Co-Founder of this program. VCP itself is a social project which aims to improve the living standard of rural communities in terms of agriculture, entrepreneurs, education, and environmental sectors.
Harlino attended COY13 as a Global South Scholarship delegate.
Q: What inspired you to be involved in the fight against climate change?
A: I believe that the greatest threats facing this planet are man-made climate change. Witnessing a number of global issues happening in the world and reality of the exacerbated environment condition have encouraged me not only to become the one who can adapt but also become the part of the solution.
Q: Could you highlight one of the projects you or your organization is involved right now?
A: I believe waste, isn’t a waste as long as we know how to utilize it. As I mentioned before, VCP is one of the focuses from IAAS to fight the climate change, especially the one that related to agriculture. VCP is formed to help rural people empower themselves based on waste treatment and entrepreneurship mentality as a solution for their problems. By transforming eggplant (the least sold product) into a fabulous snack, we help rural communities to empower themselves increase their prosperity and put an end to their waste problem. Furthermore, we encourage farmers to reuse plastic bottle to do “VertiCulture”, a simple way to do farm from home. The project increases people’s income and acts as a waste treatment alternative solution.
Q: What is the typical day of a Global South Scholarship delegate? Are there any topics you are following in this COP?
A: As a GSS Delegate, we have to attend the YOUNGO daily spokes and after that, we can involve in any side events or negotiation that we want. For me, I’m working with the YOUNGO Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) Working Group and the YOUNGO Agriculture Working Group. We had daily meetings and working mostly to enhance the youth role in each topic. We make position paper, intervention, action, and press conference to deliver a message and statement of what we stand for. Related to that, agriculture working group already conduct an action to celebrate agriculture day and raising awareness about food waste and press conference to raise youth awareness in agriculture future. The ACE working group had a workshop with the NFP and do several negotiations to encourage countries to include youth/ACE in their NDC’s.
#UglyIsBeautiful action during COP.
Q: What are the key messages you would like to share with youths in general?
A: Youth is the engine of change who has the power to drive the mission, we have the power to foster the people and connects the dots between people and the decision maker. Make it count.
Content and Media Provided by Harlino Nandha Prayudha
Edited and Arranged by Xiandi
![Youths of COP: Patrick Kohl]()
by admin | Jan 26, 2018 | #MYD, MYD2017, YOUNGO
Youths of COP: A brief Q&A with people met at COP23.
Q: Please tell me about yourself.
A: My name is Patrick Kohl. I‘m 22 years old and I study Political Sciences and Public Law at the University of Bonn. Actually, I‘ve been only part of the climate change scene for a half year. Thus, I‘m quite new to everything related to climate. Since February, I‘m part of the Youth Alliance for Future Energies. We‘re a group of young people which has followed the UNFCCC-processes for several years now. In this year, we organized the 13th Conference of Youth (COY13).
Patrick was a part of the team behind COY13.
Q: What inspired you to be involved in the fight against climate change?
A: I‘m surrounded by a lot of climate activists, who fight tirelessly for climate protection at local and regional level. Their spirit is just infectious.
Q: Did COY, in any way, made a difference in your fight against climate change?
A: Sure, it was amazing to see how 1300 young people from over 114 countries worked together to find solutions to fight climate change. No matter from which region, which skin color, which financial circumstances and which gender. Everyone is concerned and willing to change the system and save the planet. This inspired me to increase my climate action and be more determined about what I‘m doing.
The people behind COY13 (Credits to the COY Team).
Q: What is the one most interesting thing about COY?
A: I already mentioned the diverse group of participants. However, what impressed in a similar way was the work of the organization team. A group of 50 young people struggled over 10 months to organize this huge youth gathering voluntarily. We put so much effort into this and only communicated via Skype and Slack. Most of us haven‘t even met before. Nevertheless, we sticked together and care for each other. This was a truly inspiring experience.
Q: What are the key messages you would like to share with youths in general?
A: Don‘t wait to start climate action! You can start it immediately with your own personal consumption or at the local level. There are so many great initiatives in every town or village. It‘s not about saving this planet, it‘s about saving us. And this can‘t wait any longer and needs the commitment of all of us.
Content and Media Provided by Patrick Kohl
Edited and Arranged by Xiandi
![Youths of COP: Julius Schlumberger]()
by admin | Jan 26, 2018 | #MYD, MYD2017, YOUNGO
Youths of COP: A brief Q&A with people met at COP23.
Q: Please tell me about yourself.
A: My name is Julius Schlumberger, 23 years of age and currently living and studying in Aachen, Germany. At RWTH Aachen I am going to finish my Bachelor studies in Environmental Engineering next year. My engagement in the climate change scene started in February 2016 after successfully applying to join Youth Alliance for Future Energies. Youth Alliance for Future Energies is a youth delegation that is actively involved in the UNFCCC processes for several years now. Since SB44 I have been mainly focusing on adaptation and raising awareness for the impacts of climate change and climate policy in general. The past 10 months I was one of two coordinators responsible for organizing COY13. Besides that, I held a two-week course at a summer school for German pupils focusing on the international climate negotiations.
Julius has been active in the UNFCCC process.
Q: What inspired you to be involved in the fight against climate change?
A: I have been following developments regarding climate change, environment and sustainability for several years by participating in many Model United Nations conferences. However, reading all the news about countries failing to do the needed to save our planet, I did realize that I do not want to use all my time and energy for only participating in roleplay simulations. I realized that I want to join the voices of other young people that demand more climate action to make sure that our and the future generations do not suffer from lack of our engagement.
Q: Why did you take up the responsibility of organizing COY?
A: I was already following the planning processes around COY12 because I was convinced that COY is an amazing concept to bring together young people with different experiences and knowledge, to build new friendships and strengthen the international youth climate movement.
Given that COY is commonly organized by youth in the COP-hosting country, the decision to take the responsibility of organizing COY was a once in a lifetime decision to make. Even though I had no experience with organizing conferences at all, I decided to take the responsibility, since COY is about building capacities of youth, learning new crucial skills. Also, if you always stay in your comfort zone, you will never be able to make an impact.
Q: What is the one most interesting thing about COY?
A: The most amazing thing about COY is to see that many young people from all different parts of the world are getting together because they are all passionate about their future and the future of their children. It is extraordinary to feel all the positive energy, reflection, and optimism in workshops and discussions at COY13. The young people participating in COY13 are really interested in learning new things, sharing their experiences and find solutions to current climate change challenges.
Q: What are the key messages you would like to share with youths in general?
A: Everyone can decide how they want to live: Ignoring scientific findings, only concentrating on satisfying their own interests OR acknowledging the impact of their behavior, consumption, and commitment. Every voice matters and can make a difference. Hence, prepare yourself, connect with other like-minded people to spread your ideas and opinions to get more people involved and show decision-makers what you care about.
Content and Media provided by Julius Schlumberger
Edited and Arranged by Xiandi
![Youths of COP: Frances Mills]()
by admin | Jan 26, 2018 | #MYD, MYD2017, YOUNGO
Youths of COP: A brief Q&A with people met at COP23.
Q: Please tell me about yourself.
A: I just finished studying Ocean Sciences at University of Liverpool this June. I’ve been interested in environmental problems from a young age but didn’t properly engage in environmental actions until I visited India for a summer program about environmental and social justice when I was 16. We visited communities affected by environmental disasters such as the Bhopal chemical disaster, which really opened my eyes to what is going on in the world. I got involved in activism at university, through student societies and since I graduated I have been part of the UK Youth Climate Coalition, which is an organization in the UK that campaigns for climate justice and youth involvement in the environmental movement.
Frances Mills from the UKYCC
Q: What inspired you to be involved in the fight against climate change?
A: Originally I was inspired by wanting to protect nature and specifically endangered species, but as time pass I have become more and more motivated by climate justice. Many people who have barely contributed to greenhouse gas emissions are the ones facing the worst effects of climate change, and this is something that needs to be tackled immediately. I am inspired by stories of people at the front-lines of the climate struggle and by seeing campaign wins, for example, the recent ban on fracking in Scotland. Or sometimes by watching a good David Attenborough documentary and reminding myself what we are protecting!
Q: Is there any projects you are currently undertaking that you would like to highlight?
A: We recently ran a workshop at the Conference of Youth titled ‘Do we need to take down neoliberalism to address climate change?’. I would encourage anyone interested in climate change to consider the bigger picture, our economic system, and what they think the root causes of climate change are. We aren’t taught much about economics in school (at least in the UK), and I think we don’t talk about it enough!
Actions by the UKYCC
Q: Do you have a particular topic that you are following closely on and why?
A: I am going to be closely following Fiji’s Oceans Pathway Partnership and getting involved in the YOUNGO oceans working group (for obvious reasons)! The ocean is the planet’s most important climate regulator, and a large part of its capacity to take up carbon depends on having healthy ecosystems. I don’t think we talk about the oceans enough, and the OPP could permanently establish them as part of the UNFCCC dialogue.
Q: What are the key messages you would like to share with youths in general?
A: I think any young people who are hesitating to get involved with the environmental movement should know that even if you don’t feel like you know enough, you can definitely still contribute to it ! Even by just adding to the headcount at a protest, or voting for political parties with good environmental policies. Having said that, I would encourage you to get as involved as possible – the best way to learn is on the job, and I can guarantee you will meet awesome people!
Content and Media Provided by Frances Mills
Edited and Arranged by Shariman and Xiandi
