Youth are an integral part of the community and are an essential stakeholder group in climate action. They have the potential to identify and provide solutions to address issues that would help create a better planet, including finding avenues for ensuring the earth and its resources are conserved and the global temperature goal of 1.5 C is maintained.
To enhance the contributions of youth-led climate action, it is important to provide youth with avenues to meaningfully engage in local, national, and global processes. And frameworks that help have structured and systematic processes for engagement of youth in climate policy and action could play a key role in achieving this.
Framework for youth engagement
On the 19th of January 2023, SLYCAN Trust organized a youth gathering aimed at developing a draft framework for youth engagement in climate policy and action in Sri Lanka.
The event was aimed at engaging youth across Sri Lanka to discuss opportunities for collaborative youth-led climate actions, co-create and source youth focused climate research. It also presented the synthesis of key inputs received from youth research and dialogues related to developing a framework for youth engagement in Sri Lanka that links to national processes and platforms, the UNFCCC process and to build on the key areas of Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) to determine the present key focuses.
In addition, the event aimed to identify opportunities for youth engagement in climate policy and other processes to ensure inclusivity and to enhance youth engagement in climate processes building on the Global Youth Forum on Climate Change (GYFCC) and activities in the lead up to COP28.
Speaking at the event, Mr Kavindu Ediriweera, Director Youth Programmes, SLYCAN Trust spoke on the objective of the event and the importance of drafting a Framework for Youth Engagement in Climate Policy and Action. “Through youth-led dialogues we aim to gather information and inputs from youth on climate policy and action, and existing climate processes in diverse sectors of Sri Lanka. This information will then help determine key avenues for integrating youth engagement and contribution to climate policy and action at all levels in the country”.
Innovative and transformative climate solutions
Youth have the potential to provide innovative and transformative climate solutions therefore providing them with a platform for participation, knowledge sharing, and cooperation can have positive outcomes in climate action.
Speaking at the event, our Director, Research and Knowledge Management Mr Dennis Mombaeur spoke on the platforms and opportunities provided by SLYCAN Trust to allow youth to meaningfully participate in climate action such as the Global Youth Forum on Climate Change, the Food Systems Dialogues, Youth Partnership for Climate Risk Management, and youth inputs in national policy processes.
He further added the Draft Framework aims to further enhance youth engagement in climate action and policy processes in Sri Lanka with a connection to regional and global processes and shared the four phases through which we aim to draft the document. “The four phases of the framework consist of components related to preparation, research, consolidation and validation. The first phase includes preliminary research on the policy environment, and it is completed now. Currently, the framework is in the second phase. In this phase we will collect inputs from youth and once consolidated it will be sent for further inputs and comments from experts in the field”.
Youth inputs
Participants of the event engaged in discussions focused on the six ACE elements and the Nationally Determined Contributions of Sri Lanka and identified key actions based on the priority sectors for climate action in Sri Lanka.
Youth, climate change and the ACE elements
Through the first break-out group discussions the youth identified the need to strengthen the linkages between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Environment and the need to enhance collaborations between other stakeholders to ensure effective and efficient dissemination of knowledge among youth. To this regard, the youth participants pointed out the necessity of access to learning materials in Sinhala, Tamil and English languages while incorporating the braille system. They also suggested the use of modern technologies by stakeholders to create awareness among youth.
Youth were quick to draw attention to training for meaningful engagement and went on to suggest conducting a training need analysis to identify trainers, focus teams, the content for training, including training evaluation and feedback for continued improvement in training in climate action. The youth further emphasized on the importance of decentralized events conducted by those engaged in climate action to ensure urban and rural youth engagement. Furthermore, they went on to discuss the importance of access to information, funding and knowledge sharing for better engagement.
Youth engagement in climate action at the sectoral level
During the second break-out group discussions the youth selected the coastal and marine sector, fisheries sector, industry sector, waste management sector and tourism and recreation sector as key sectors to identify entry points and opportunities for youth engagement in the Nationally Determined Contributions of Sri Lanka. Through the discussions the participants identified key actions related to education and awareness, empowering students in sustainable entrepreneurship and capacity building.
Discussing the opportunities in the industry sector, the youth recommended capacity building and accelerator programmes to empower university students in sustainable entrepreneurship. They also discussed the benefits of motivating the Sri Lankan government to establish green policies including an award system and to connect export based Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to new markets using sustainability as the key foundation. For the waste management sector, the participants once again spoke on the potential of enhancing entrepreneurship for sustainable solutions.
In the discussions surrounding the fisheries sector and coastal and marine sector, the youth participants identified awareness programmes as a key activity to ensure sustainable fishing and community based coastal management programmes. They suggested coral and ecosystem mapping in addition to identifying threatened species due to climate change. The participants spoke on the role youth could play in creating awareness in the tourism and recreation sector. They stated youth could play a role in creating awareness on rules and regulations, conservation, sustainability and climate change among tour guides.
Way Forward
To move forward the participants suggested developing and building on the inputs received during the event through further engagement between the participants. In this regard, SLYCAN Trust aims to provide the necessary resources and support needed for the purpose of networking among the youth participants.
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