At the Rio+20 Summit in Brazil, member states of UN setup an inter-governmental Open Working Group OWG given the mandate to report to UN General Assembly UNGA on the SDGs framework 2015-2030 which will replace MDGs in 2015. The OWG without youth involvement identified 19 focus areas out of which 10 were interlinked with climate change. As 2015 the expiry of the MDGs is becoming more closer than ever, stakeholders all over the world are engage in the Post2015 consultation processes without given the youth their roles to play in the policy formulation processes of the post2015 framework agenda, although the discussions signifies that a healthy natural system and poverty reduction are interlink, intertwined, interwoven, interrelated and interconnected but, the synergy to which we could agree on the mechanisms for Post2015 framework become abortive. Even though, UN SDS Network proposed 10 goals which include climate change but, still yet, the issue of integrating climate change as a goal or target have yet to appear in the continuing consultations.

Climate change affects all sectors of the economy, without concerted efforts from both local, national, international governments, businesses, private sector, NGOs and Civil society all efforts will be difficult if not impossible to limit the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC current target of 20C, even at 20C warmer, maintaining post2015 objectives will be difficult and costly and the worst part of it is that, going by current trends of emissions, we are heading towards global average temperature increase of between 30C to 50C by the end of the century which is bad for global sustainability.

Concurrent negotiations and consultations without considering the youth such as the UNFCCC climate agreements, post2015 development agenda, financing for development discussions, revision of Hyogo Framework for Action, challenge of integrating climate change therefore become obviously enormous.
During the consultations, climate change could feature in both as a “GOAL” and as a “TARGET” but, whether as both we should put adaptation, mitigation, disaster risk, loss and damage into considerations.

TARGETS:

Different targets proposed for the post2015 development framework which include among others;
• Proportion of youth in developing and partaking in the efforts of renewable energy mix in the production and supply of global energy supply by 2030 such as wind, solar, small hydro, thermal, and biomass and role of youth in technological advancement of renewable energy technology.
• Percentage of youth participation on the increase in the rate of energy efficiency, energy conservation and energy observation by 2030 which will come from both youth from developing and developed nations.
• Reduce indoor air pollution for mothers and children, increase in the number of youth engagements in the dry season farming by supply of water using stand alone solar to pump water to irrigation sites among youth from developing world by 2030.
• Capacity building training for youth, awareness creation, and sensitization to all youth on dangers of climate change and importance of renewable energy by 2030
• Climate of flooding, soil erosion, desertification, land degradation, drought, and other disasters youth related death to be curved by 2030 SDGs deadline.

GOAL:

The Intergovernmental Open Working Group consider 19 focus areas which climate change was among as 18 even though, all the focus areas are not based on priority, they all are importance, they all interconnect, interrelate, interwoven, and intertwine with each other. From my own perspectives points of view, the post2015 development framework agenda need to consider climate change as standalone goal and needs to involve youth in the further consultations, it could be climate change mitigation, adaptation or loss and damage even though loss and damage is a new concept in the policy processes, on the other hand, integration of climate change with other focus areas will as well and will undoubtedly contribute towards global sustainability in the medium to long term say 2030.

RCE Youth from all over the world need to mold both economic, social and environmental aspect of global sustainability and come together to have a say in policy formulation and policy processes at local, national, and international stage so that we could come up with solutions on how to change and unlock our world, so that youth could further be integrated in running affairs of global politics.

Youth are the future, we are the foundation, we are the key, we are the alpha, and we are the omega of global sustainability. Without putting the younger ones into consideration, without involving us into the policy framework formulations, the aims and objectives cannot be achieved, without given youth a say in both the United Nations and other international organisations, the whole efforts will be derailed because at last we will be the ones responsible for the future. Therefore, we hold the economic key board of global sustainability in our hands to promulgate and formulate policies that suite our current planet’s economic objectives without jeopardizing our future generations their own needs.

RCE Youth Network has a role to play in policy formulation that has to do with our changing climatic conditions for the benefits of others, by integrating other youth’s networks, by coming together under one umbrella, by aggregating the number of youth movements in the same goal of fight against global warming I could say we are half way there.

Thank you for taking time to go through my posting.

Usman