CISONEC CHAMPIONS YOUTH INCLUSION IN CLIMATE DECISION MAKING PROCESSES

Youth environmental activists in the country say investing and involving youth and children in climate decision making processes is crucial in as far as combating climate change is concerned.

Michael, a young environmental activist from Embangweni CDSS in Mzimba district, cautions the need for action from duty bearers to invest much in children environmental related interventions as the generation being raised today is the one that will be implementing visions of different countries.

“So, for this generation to implement climate action, that fight against climate change, it needs them to voice out that there is a need to invest in young children’s innovations, because we cannot just be advocating, we also need to be implementing action on the ground,” he said.

Michael added by urging his fellow youth and children to join hands and have one goal of combating climate change, by engaging themselves in child-led innovations even without having funding.

Another environmental youth activist, Faith from Mzimba Secondary School, echoes Michaels sentiments by mentioning how vulnerable the children are with the impacts of climate change.

“Here in Malawi, we are usually affected by climate crises like cyclone Freddy, cyclone Anna and a lot of children are really affected with that,” she said.

She added, “So for me, I’m pushing forward for change, how children could adapt and how children could cope up with it and how the same children could find solutions to the problems that they are facing.”

While acknowledging children’s participation in relevant meetings such as Conference of parties commonly known as COP, Civil Society Network on Climate Change (CISONEC) National Coordinator, Julius Ng’oma emphasized on the need for more inclusion of children in such decision-making meetings so that the youth themselves should be the one voicing out their views related to climate change justice.

“Here we are actually trying to advocate for more inclusion of the youth and children and other marginalized groups into for example, the cop-related delegation, so that we are able to, the youth themselves should voice out what are their concerns in terms of climate change, how they are being impacted and what they want to see in the future,” Ng’oma said.

Meanwhile, government says it has committed itself to solicit views from different stakeholders including the children themselves, so that as the country will be participating at COP-29, it should be speaking with one voice.

The 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference commonly known as COP-29, will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan from 11th to 22nd November 2024.

By Lester Mhone