It’s time we took a seat ‘at your table’: Guterres calls on world youth to keep leading climate emergency response

Older generations have “failed to respond properly” to the climate emergency said the UN chief, while the young are “stepping up to the challenge” and taking the lead to slow the destructive pace of global warming.

António Guterres was making the closing address at the UN-backed World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth, and Youth Forum, in the Portuguese capital Lisbon.

The summit comes 21 years after the adoption of the Lisbon Declaration on Youth Policies and Programmes, and provides a place for national governments to talk about progress made with young people directly, and well as introducing new approaches to empowering youth in politics and decision-making.

Building on an argument he has been making for some months now in the face of the existential threat posed by climate change, enshrined in the Paris Agreement of 2015 to keep warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, the Secretary-General said that it’s “not enough to listen to young people and provide a seat at the table – we need to take a seat at your table”.

Through the actions of inspiration young leaders such as Sweden’s Greta Thunberg who’s got classrooms striking for climate action across the world, Mr. Guterres said that:

“schoolchildren have grasped its urgency better than global leaders. They know the window of opportunity is closing; they are determined to beat this threat and they are making a big difference already.”

The UN chief said Governments were listening, and companies are starting to realise that a big carbon footprint is bad for their image, and even for their profits.

“We need to create an enabling environment for young people, where they are seen not as subjects to be protected, but as citizens with equal rights, equal voices and equal influence, as full members of our societies and powerful agents for change.”

Mr. Guterres told the hall he was hoping that many would be in New York in September, for not only the major Climate Action Summit but also to help push along with more urgent and ambitious global action for implementation.

Original source: UN News
Published on 23 June 2019