Youth participate in Jordan’s first-ever climate action “Local Conference of Youth”, co-hosted by Generations For Peace and UNICEF
6 September 2021 – Amman, Jordan: Over two days, 5-6 September 2021, Generations For Peace and the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF Jordan, have co-hosted the first-ever Local Conference of Youth (LCOY) to be held in Jordan, engaging 100 young people with climate experts and giving voice to youth perspectives on the climate emergency and opportunities for climate action.
Under the umbrella of YOUNGO, the official youth constituency of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), LCOY’s in different countries provide a space to engage young people in climate action locally and to feed youth perspectives into the upcoming regional and international conferences Conference of Youth (COY), before the global Conference of Parties (COP), the annual UN-Climate Conference, being hosted in Glasgow, Scotland, in November 2021.
Dr Mohanned Arabiat, President of Generations For Peace, commented: “We, at Generations for Peace, are very excited to be co-hosting this year’s LCOY conference as this reflects our increased commitment to climate action. We see this as a natural extension of our responsibility towards more active global citizenship rooted in local actions led by youth in their communities. The link between conflict and climate change has already been established, thus, it is imperative that peacebuilding organizations, such as Generations For Peace, must play an active role in climate action through engagement with youth and key stakeholders on the policy level.”
Tanya Chapuisat , Country Representative of UNICEF Jordan, commented: “Children and young people will continue to face the full devastating consequences of the climate crisis and water insecurity, yet they are the least responsible. We have a duty to all young people and future generations. UNICEF is supporting the Government of Jordan in its national climate change policy that includes the perspectives of children and young people and also integrates greening and climate-friendly initiatives across its programmes”.
The conference themes included Climate Change and Social issues; Climate education to increase awareness; Sustainable Lifestyles, Technology and Environment; Health and Climate Change; Water management and Sustainable Cities; Climate Policy and Advocacy; Youth Climate Initiatives and Policy Advocacy.
Expert presenters included Lara Nassar, Environmental Specialist at Nuffic in Jordan; Mefleh Alabadi – Mefleh, Regional Water Advisor at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in the Swiss Embassy; Ahmad Zeyad, Urban Planning Researcher at Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) and a Member of GAM’s Climate Change Committee and the Green City Action Plan Committee; Eng. Ruba Ajjour, Manager of Climate Change Studies Division at Royal Scientific Society; Hala S. Murad, a human rights and environment activist and Executive Director of the Dibeen Association for Environmental Development and Facilitator Expert in the International Working Group for Multi-Level Advocacy on Land Rights Eng. Hadeel Alqatamin, Research Officer at ARDD and and member of the Green Building Committee in the Jordanian Engineering Association and volunteer at Green Generation Foundation and Green Building Council; Besan AbdelQader, Youth and Adolescent Development Specialist at the UNICEF Jordan; Bilal Al Shakarin, Director of the Climate Change Directorate at the Ministry of Environment and the National Liaison Officer for the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Green Climate Fund.
UNICEF was established in 1946 to supply emergency relief to millions of children suffering in the aftermath of World War II. UNICEF has worked in Jordan since 1952 to promote and protect the rights of children.
Generations For Peace is a global non-profit peacebuilding organization founded in 2007. GFP has trained, mentored, and supported 19,522 volunteers and reached 1,417,308 people in 51 countries. GFP is ranked #26 in the “Top 200 Social Good Organizations in the World” by NGO Advisor based on innovation, impact and governance, making GFP the #2 anti-violence, and #3 peacebuilding NGO in the world, and #1 NGO in the Arab world.
