Negotiating our future: Youth set to grab power roles at COP27

Negotiating our future: Youth set to grab power roles at COP27

SHARM AL SHEIKH: Fiji’s Sivendra Michael was just a year old when Pacific island nations first sought help in 1991, through planned UN climate negotiations, to deal with expected “loss and damage” from rising seas and other climate change impacts. This year, the 32-year-old, a disaster risk management and development expert who just earned his PhD, will be pushing to finally make that help a reality as a formal negotiator on “loss and damage” and other issues for his country at COP27 in Egypt. “They are negotiating our future and it’s only right for us to be at the table,” said Michael, one of 60 newly trained youth from 27 countries acting as full-fledged climate negotiators at the UN talks starting Monday. As the first class of the new Climate Youth Negotiator Programme, they aim to “bring the power from the streets and young people to more experienced negotiators,” said co-founder Marie-Claire Graf, a 26-year-old former Swiss negotiator. Young people - many passionate about climate change action and with increasingly impressive expertise and credentials - have long been at the forefront of green protests and activism outside the corridors of power. Now many are striding into those corridors, seeking to