On 8 October, with the help of the British Embassy Ashgabat, the United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Turkmen youth convened first Local Conference of Youth on Climate Change in hybrid format on the run up to the 16th session of the UN Climate Change Conference of Youth (COY16), which will take place 28 – 31 October and the 26th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) in November in Glasgow, United Kingdom. The conference brought together young people from a number of universities across Turkmenistan where they shared experience, knowledge, opinions and ideas to strengthen actions to combat global climate change, as well as discussed the key problems in the field of climate change that affect Turkmenistan, and developed the necessary measures to solve them. The event also provided an opportunity to build the capacity of Turkmen youth and enable them to discuss and develop recommendations for increasing resilience to climate change, mitigation of its effects and adaptation to climate change for decision-makers.
During the conference, young people had the opportunity to discuss the need to jointly resolve issues to combat climate change in Turkmenistan. As a result, young Turkmen leaders developed and adopted the Final Summary of Youth Initiatives in Turkmenistan, which will be included in the Global Youth Statement at COY16 and presented to world leaders at COP26 this November, as well as a Roadmap for Creative Climate Change Solutions that will implemented within the next year. It is expected that henceforth the Youth Conference on Climate Change will be organized and conducted by Turkmen youth annually.
Senior UK and UN figures like Jayathma Wickramanayake, the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, Nick Bridge, the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative for Climate Change, David Moran, COP26 Regional Ambassador for Europe, Central Asia, Turkey and Iran also joined the conference to support Turkmen youth.
The conference was one of many COP26 related events that the British Embassy Ashgabat organised jointly with partners such as the United Nations and the Government of Turkmenistan. Stressing the importance of the youth conference the UK Embassy’s Deputy Head of Mission Mr Peter Dalby noted in his opening remarks that “We are now just less than a month away from these two major, international climate events. Now more than ever young people and young voices are a vital part of that global conversation around climate change.” Mr Dalby’s speech is available in full on the Embassy’s website at www.gov.uk/world/turkmenistan
The UK Conference of Parties (COP26) Presidency has recognised and endorsed the Conference of Youth (COY16) as the official youth constituency of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. COY16 gathers the voices of global youth to develop an official youth statement for the UN climate negotiations. It also serves as a space for capacity building and policy training to prepare young people for their participation at COP26 and influencing international policy.
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Source: British Embassy Ashgabat
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