FOR the first time, the government of Nigeria has put forward youth representatives to be a part of the official delegation to the 25th Conference of the Parties (COP25) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) taking place at Feria De Madrid, Spain, under the presidency of the Government of Chile, from December 2 to 13, 2019.
With the youths involvement, it is expected that they will play central roles such that Nigeria will have increased outcomes from the negotiations.
Samira Ibrahim, Adenike Oladosu, Farid Labaran, Glory Ogbuegbo and Seyifunmi Adebote are some of the Nigerian youths selected to be part of Nigeria’s official delegation at the ongoing COP25.
Speaking at the conference, one of the youth delegates, Samira Ibrahim said youth inclusion has potential to catalyse climate action in Nigeria.
“This is the first time that youths are included as part of the government delegates to play technical roles. Although the issues are too diverse, we are trying to map out issues of national priority in line with our respective strengths. We also understand the political will and international processes, so we are putting them in perspective in our engagements,” she said.
In a discussion with the youth delegates, one of Nigeria’s lead negotiators at COP25, Professor Emmanuel Oladipo, provided guidance on how the youths can maximise the global engagements and make solid inputs as part of the global negotiations in Madrid.
He said, “Climate has been changing and it will continue to change. The role of the youths is to lay emphasis on previous commitment and make sure the people making decision begin to understand the need for all hands to be on the deck to urgently address this challenge.”
COP25 has been designed to take crucial steps in the UN climate change process and is equally building on the implementation guidelines of the Paris Agreement agreed to at COP 24 in Poland. COP25 is furthermore meant to build ambition ahead of 2020, the year in which countries have committed to submit new and updated national climate action plans.