WYCJ hosts side event at climate negotiations in Bonn
On the 10th of June, WYCJ hosted the side event ‘Keeping 1.5 alive, a global youth-led campaign for climate justice’ in Bonn in the framework of the UN climate change negotiations. The event highlighted the potential of requesting an ICJ Advisory Opinion and galvanized young people to get involved in the WYCJ campaign. The event was hosted in collaboration with Youth & Environment Europe, the largest environmental youth organization in Europe, and the Jonge Klimaatbeweging, the largest youth climate organization in the Netherlands.
The event opened with a statement by Solomon Yeo, Campaign Director of PISFCC, who underlined the importance of young people and states rallying around the campaign and the complementarity of bringing climate change to the ICJ and the Paris Agreement. “In this final decade for climate action, we must have a two-pronged approach to address the climate crisis. We must both be laser-focused on reaching equitable solutions within the climate negotiations as well as looking and utilizing the other international mechanisms that are available to us.”
Dennis Jansen, UN Youth Representative for the Netherlands, outlined the next steps of the campaign. “We need countries and we need to start the conversation. I see opportunities, when you go back home or even before you go back home please speak with your governments and start this conversation.”
The panel discussion brought together Harjeet Singh, senior advisor of Climate Action Network International, Sabantho Aderi from the Indigenous Peoples Platform, Arpitha Kodiveri Associate Professor at New York University, Anthony Janga founder of the youth organization BITlab on Bonaire and Dennis Jansen.
Sabantho Aderi shared the potential of an ICJ Advisory Opinion to protect the rights of Indigenous peoples. “Sea levels are rising and desertification is causing the inland indigenous communities' loss of production, they depend on these and because of the dryness wildfires are threatening their livelihoods.” Arpitha Kodiveri raised that despite the direness of the climate crisis, we are currently in a situation with a lack of legal imagination. The ICJ Advisory Opinion could help break this impasse. “I think that the Advisory Opinion will serve the key function of actually solidifying and clarifying what does the right of future generations mean, what does a human rights lens actually mean for the climate crisis.” Besides these contributions, Harjeet shared the importance of bringing people back to the center of climate action stating “The moment when you put people at the center, everything changes. As soon as we get the ICJ Advisory Opinion it is going to be about their lives and their culture, the whole conversation changes.”
Climate activist Melati Wijsen shared a message of support from Bali. The event was moderated by Sarah Oey, UN Youth Representative for the Netherlands.
