Open Conference on the Second Virtual Cohort Programme on Climate Change
The Open Conference of the Second Virtual Programme on Climate Change is an event established to declare the second cohort open.
On the 29th of May, 2022, Revamp Rave Network Initiative (RRN) held its Open Conference Event themed “Glasgow Climate Pact: A Roadmap to Climate Action”. The event aimed to launch the Second Virtual Cohort Programme on Climate Change and serve as a follow-up of the Glasgow Climate Pact to set a foundational knowledge around the current state of youth involvement in actualising the Paris Agreement for the new participants in the cohort.
In attendance were leading experts such as Prof Olanrewaju Fagbohun; a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and professor of environmental law, Elizabeth Gulugulu; the Global South Focal Point of the Youth Constituency to the UNFCCC, Inga Stefanowicz; Head of the European Union in Nigeria and the ECOWAS’s Digital and Green Economy department and Sean Melbourne; Head of Climate Change and Energy, West Africa, UK Government who were also panels for the event. Other special guests present were Christine Gould, the CEO of Thought For Food (TFF) and an Agric-Tech innovator, Michael Simire; CEO of EnviroNews, Dr Todd Ngara; the Lead Consultant for the Nigerian Climate Change Response Programme (NCCRP), Evgeniia Konstanian; the Global Lead for the United Nations Decade of Science’s Early Career Ocean Professionals (UN Ocean Decade-ECOP), Taiwo Ajewole of WasteXchange, Hira Wajahat; the CEO and Founder of CleanTech Republik. Other partnering organisations present were Executive Helping Initiative, SDG Action Network, Mushin To the World, and Nigeria Climate Change Response team, to mention a few.
The programme started with the founder of the Network and the coordinator of the Climate College Hub giving the opening remark. She explained why the Climate College Hub was established, to incorporate more young people into climate action processes while allowing them to build more capacity to birth climate-smart innovations to solve climate change.
She ran through how the first edition of the Virtual Cohort, which spanned three months, trained 20 young African advocates, mobilised 30 tutors worldwide, and launched Ecolog: A Quick Guide to the Basics of Climate Change through the cohort. She continued by mentioning that the need to educate more young people to make meaningful climate action to enable their local communities is vital for sustainable development.
Hence, the Climate College Hub project, a hybrid sustainability innovation platform, was created to solve the three significant challenges identified by the team; young people’s interest to engage meaningfully but not knowing the know-how, get a one-stop platform to build their knowledge about how climate change affects them and what actions to take and to develop their understanding of climate science and advocacy.
She ended by saying, that the Second Cohort Programme, which had over 700 applicants, would see the training of 200 applicants who would have the opportunity to do a post-programme internship with Thoughts For Food, UN Ocean Decade of Science’s Early Career Ocean Professional Programme, EnviroNews Nigeria and WasteXchange to help them get more practical capacity on what they would learn on the cohort. She ended by thanking everyone for taking the time to grace the occasion.
Shortly after the founder’s welcome address, the chief guest speaker Dr Mrs Priscilla Achakpa, the global president of the Women Empowerment Programme, gave the keynote speech. She said, “If the young people are not placed strategically to address the environmental and climate change challenges, then that nation is doomed. Young people are the strength of this nation; it is also, therefore very, imperative that youth can be pivotal to building social collation, economic prosperity, and environmental sustainability.
The essence of continuous learning about climate and harnessing the opportunities that come with the challenges of this new climate era set by young people is integral to addressing climate change and building a more resilient world. She emphasised the need to acknowledge the strength and importance of youth involvement and innovation for more sustainability.
After the keynote speech, Godiya Zambwa, the organisation’s communication lead, gave an overview of the cohort programme in retrospect and ran through the plans for the cohort. The moderator for the event, Mohammed Mahmood Maishanu, the co-founder of BlackWalnut, a cleantech company based in Nigeria, called on the partnering organisation to give a five-minute speech each to commemorate the event.
Christine Gould explicitly spoke about the need to solve food insecurity and strengthen food systems through technology and innovation. She talked about the work TFF is doing to address food security issues through programmes and innovation challenge competitions to encourage innovative youth solutions worldwide. She expressed excitement about the partnership with RRN and urged the participant to leverage the opportunity to increase their capacity.
Michael Simire, the CEO of EnviroNews and one of the partnering organisations on the cohort, spoke extensively about the roles of young people and how EnviroNews will help achieve the programme’s vision through the internship. He further stated that climate communication is crucial for young people to project their knowledge and impact on the sustainable development issues climate change impacts. He mentioned that awareness-raising and information dissemination is vital as young people know more than anyone about the climate challenges they face. He said that this is an opportunity for the participant to get hands-on training on climate communication processes.
Evgeniia Kostianaia, the Global Lead for the UN Ocean Decade-ECOP programme, said that the mindset of learning about solving climate change to conserve ocean resources and young people’s networking with their peers from different countries could strengthen more youth voices and active participation in climate action. Hence, the ECOP programme will help build more informed advocates to see the need to conserve ocean biodiversity. She ended by giving an overview of what ECOP has done to solve climate change challenges.
Immediately after the guest speakers’ speech session, the panel session began with Prof Olanrewju Fagbohun, a Professor of International Law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who spoke on International Climate Regime and Youth Involvement. He said that the international climate regimes are characterised by variances of rules, institutions, programmes, decision making, and procedures, excepted to shape expectations and guide activities that can deliver on achieving the goal of climate reductions. Mentioning the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, the purposes of both conventions are to reduce greenhouse gases and get parties to meet to present ambitious national goals. Yet, we continually plead for recognition of increasing climate injustices and a need for a sense of urgency in reducing climate impact. He ended his session by saying that there are laws, but it is more crucial to meet the challenges of climate injustices and that more youth participation is needed to solve the current climate change crisis.
Mr Sean Melbourne spoke on Youth Participation: Climate Change and Energy Transition. His talking points were about how the impact of climate change is intensely felt across all ecosystems and how the solutions to climate change and biodiversity loss can be achieved through scaling impact. He spoke extensively about the COP26 Conference held in Glasgow, and some outcomes pushed forward by young people and all nations present. He said that “individually, we can make a difference by collaborating with young people as they have the power to reimagine the world.”
Inga Stefanowicz, the EU Head of Green and Digital Economy, spoke on Raising Climate Ambition and Implementing the NDCs. She highlighted the objectives of the European Union and the goals to attain a Green and Digital Economy through its Team Europe Initiative and its quest for more inclusion through the launch of the EU Youth Sounding Board Advisory Group to achieve not only the Paris Agreement but its help Nigeria scale up through partnership its climate objectives. She ended by speaking on how individuals, particularly young people, are raising the standard to contribute to achieving the climate objectives by embracing a sustainable lifestyle and promoting it with technology, innovation and creativity.
Elizabeth Gulugulu, the Youth Focal Person to the UNFCC, spoke on Young People as Agent of Change in Achieving the Paris Agreement. She said the role of young people in achieving the Paris Agreement and mitigating the impact of climate change is critical for sustainability. Every person could use their various skills to scale up their climate impact, which can be done through writing, activism activities and policymaking. She talked about youth being resilient and focused on fighting Climate Change and fostering innovative solutions. Lastly, she spoke about the importance of individual and community climate literacy efforts and education, which are essential in fighting climate change.
After the panel session, one of the past tutors, Akintunde Akinmolayan and alumni Godiya Zambwa from the maiden edition gave their testimonials to encourage the active participation of the new participants.
The event ended with the closing remark given by Mrs Wynfred Achu-Egbuson, the European Union Youth Focal Point and CSO Officer.
Read our highlights on EnviroNews — https://bit.ly/3N7M9Um
