Today, a group of youth leaders presented a Manifesto and Open Letter during the Nature for Life Hub at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The initiative draws from a wide body of work by youth groups across the world and outlines 12 priorities of young people to be addressed to achieve the 2050 vision of “living in harmony with nature.” The effort is positioned as: By Youth. To World Leaders. #ForNature.
The Youth #forNature initiative is led by the United Nations Major Group for Children and Youth (UNMGCY) and is connected to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Major Group for Children and Youth, Global Youth Biodiversity Network, YOUNGO-Youth for Climate, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Global Youth Caucus and Youth for Our Planet.
The young people, who come from different social backgrounds, ethnicities, genders and geographies, requested world leaders to declare a “planetary emergency,” in relation to the worsening climate and biodiversity crises. They ask for heads of state to develop strategies for effective conservation and restoration, adopt binding environmental targets, create transformative education in schools, uphold the rights of Indigenous peoples, protect environmental defenders, ensure intergenerational equity and to be accountable.
“Our generation has seen many of the promises of the Millennium Development Goals, the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, and the Kyoto Protocol fail. We need real transformative change,” said the group’s letter.
In July, UN Secretary-General António Guterres launched a Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change comprising seven young leaders who will provide perspectives and solutions to help tackle the worsening climate crisis, shape COVID-19 recovery, and confront injustice and inequality.
Youth advocates have emphasized that while COVID-19 recovery packages are focusing on economic relief, the sustainability aspect cannot be left behind. Climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental degradation are a “shadow” pandemic and need similar levels of action, they said.
Our generation has seen many of the promises of the Millennium Development Goals, the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, and the Kyoto Protocol fail. We need real transformative change.
Scientific and economic studies estimate that 75 per cent of the land, 66 per cent of oceans, and 85 per cent of wetlands have been negatively altered by human activity. While a new WWF report finds a 68 per cent decline in species population sizes since 1970.
Youth realise that this is the world they will inherit. A recent survey of millennials — 30,000 individuals under the age of 30 from 186 countries — found that climate change and the destruction of nature were the most critical issues for them.
The Climate Cardinals, an international non-profit led by the youngest member of the Secretary General’s Youth Advisory Group on Climate, Sophia Kianni, is working to translate climate change research and information. It will make the Manifesto and Letter available in multiple languages so that they can reach as many young people and leaders as possible and enable the effort to be the most widely distributed petition on planetary health for human wellbeing.
“In order for youth from around the world to come together #ForNature, it is crucial for biodiversity information to be available in a plethora of different languages,” said Kianni.
The Youth #forNature initiative aims to rouse greater commitment from global leaders in the run-up to several global conferences including the UN General Assembly Biodiversity Summit on the 30th of September 2020 and the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA)-5 in February 2021. The group has the support of its group of “elders” from UNEP, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
