Walking into the Bella Centre this morning, Dean, a fellow Canadian Youth Delegate, and I were greeted by a sea of orange. Of orange shirts to be more precise. Today is Youth and Future Generations Day here at COP15 and we’re wearing our best and our brightest to show other delegates just how many youth came here to speak for future generations (some 1500 youth, is the most recent estimate).
In the centre and in plenaries, it’s perhaps too easy to get bogged down with process and schedules and accronyms and contact group meeting times and working documents and to forget the urgency, to forget that this is, fundamentally, a question of justice and of survival. Thus the importance of a strong civil society and youth presence. We cannot stand idly by as our future is bracketed.*
How old will you be in 2050?
more to come after the international youth action
*[bracketed text] in negotiating documents, is text that’s still up for discussion