The government of Nigeria has put forward youth representatives to be a part of the official delegation to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25) holding in Madrid, Spain from December 2 to 13, 2019, under the Chilean presidency of the Government of Chile. It is expected that Nigeria will have increased outcomes from the negotiations at the global summit.
Samira Ibrahim, Adenike Oladosu, Farid Labaran, Glory Ogbuegbo and Seyifunmi Adebote are some of the Nigerian youths that are participating at the ongoing conference. Sharing her thoughts at the opening of the conference, Ibrahim considers the prospect of youth inclusion to catalyse climate action in Nigeria.
She said: “This is the first time that youths are included as part of the government delegates to play a technical role. 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.”
In a discussion with the youth delegates, one of Nigeria’s negotiators to 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.
“Climate has been changing and it will continue to change. The role of the youth 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 deck to urgently address this challenge,” said Prof Oladipo.
The UNFCCC conference 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 COP24 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.
By Seyifunmi Adebote
