By Antynet Ford
The Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) has continued to champion for enhancement of capacity for women, youths in marginalized communities, and indigenous people in the fight against Climate change.
According to YWCA, these are the vulnerable people in society who suffer most from the adverse effects of climate change even though all people are touched by it.
The NGO is implementing a project on ‘Deepening the role of marginalized African Youth and other marginalized communities in post-Paris climate dialogue process funded by Hivos under the alliance of Voices for Just Climate Action (VCA) which brings together global and local voices.
Impacts of Climate cut across issues like poverty reduction, gender, marginalized groups, equality and food security, and compound risks relating to infrastructure, politics, and security.
Poor women, girls, youth, and Indigenous people in vulnerable communities are disproportionately affected, yet they have contributed the least to the climate crisis and are marginalized from conversations on how to respond to it.
The COP29 Presidency encourages all Parties to involve civil society, Indigenous Peoples, women, youth, and other key stakeholders in the transparency process.
According to the COP29 presidency action agenda letter, two days have been set to discuss Children and Youth, Indigenous Peoples and Gender Equality.
The first-ever Human Development Day is expected to take a holistic view of climate change that threatens human development, youth, health, and education as inter-related issues to be supported, while also addressing each thematic issue as a standalone priority.
Indigenous Peoples preserve 80% of the world’s biodiversity and 36% of intact forest landscapes, whilst women-led climate action and nature-based solutions represent transformative pathways for climate mitigation and adaptation.
The key focus areas in the COP29 Include:
Climate finance: Parties descending to the COP29 in Baku, are set to agree on a new post-2025 climate finance goal, a new ‘quantum’. The NCQG aims to mobilize substantial financial resources, which should support youth-led climate action projects and initiatives.
According to Marlene Achoki a climate champion at Care International, Enhanced financial flows can provide more opportunities for education, training, and capacity-building programs tailored for young people, empowering them to take active roles in climate action.
“Adaptation finance channels must be reformed to increase the allocation and ensure the access to marginalized communities by reducing administrative measures (barriers) funding and supporting local institutions, particularly youth organizations, women and Indigenous people.” She said during a previous Pre-COP meeting at the YWCA headquarters.
Gender Action Plan (GAP) is being reviewed- it is essential for parties to ensure that gender equality is central to this new financial objective and all the other issues on the negotiation table.
Global Goal on adaptation (GGA): Mapping indicators for measuring adaptation -enhance adaptive capacity, strengthen resilience, and reduce vulnerability to CC. According to experts, the adaptation finance channels must be reformed to increase the allocation and ensure access for marginalized communities by reducing administrative barriers; funding and supporting local institutions, particularly youth-led and girl-led groups and organizations, and implementing key principles of locally-led adaptation and resilience-building.