Engage the passion and expertise of youth to meet the climate change challenge

Kirils Holstovs, bridge engineer at AECOM, writes from the COP27 meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh where he is advocating an enhanced role for young people in climate policy

If the world is to solve the existential crisis that is climate change, it is essential that every voice is understood, heard and considered as political leaders at COP27 seek to find solutions to turn the tide.

It’s encouraging that COP meetings are among the most diverse and representative events you could attend. Tens of thousands of people from every nation, representing government, industry, NGOs and interest groups are gathered to debate and negotiate. Yet one key group, a constituency with more at stake than most in this battle for the future, is too often under-represented and unheard: the world’s youth.

My mission in Sharm El-Sheikh is to find ways to connect the voice of youth with the world’s policymakers and to ensure we are able to bring our expertise and passion to the cause. In addition, I am advocating the role that innovation in infrastructure and the built environment can play in fighting climate, an area in which AECOM can bring its skills and experience to bear.

It was a privilege to help convene a meeting of policymakers and youth leaders in COP27’s Blue Zone, supported by the Commonwealth Secretariat, the World Federation of Engineering Organizations and the International Federation of Consulting Engineers. The panel focused on how the expertise of young people could be harnessed to bridge the divide between science and policy in the climate arena.

Prior to the discussion and COP27 I shared the preliminary findings of a survey of youth and policymakers which found a range of barriers to effective engagement. Young people said that a lack of transparency and consultation in policymaking and a scarcity of paid opportunities, structured engagement and finance were among reasons for disengagement. Policymakers cited time pressure as a barrier but insisted there were benefits to engagement with young people and that widespread consultation was already a key part of the process.

The panel was unanimous in its view that young people needed to be more involved in COP process, and Dr Andrea Clayton, of the Caribbean Maritime University in Jamaica, made an eloquent case for its importance: “More than half of the world’s population is young people yet we are not included in decision-making and the political process. And we talk about climate change and its impact as if it’s something in the future, when young people are now watching their future disappearing.”

The panel advocated a number of key actions that could be taken including the inclusion of more young people in COP delegations as active participants. This would also accelerate the learning process of those who will be the climate negotiators of the future. In addition, it was broadly agreed that improved and simpler access to finance for young entrepreneurs would be beneficial.

I strongly believe that young engineers and scientists can play a key role in bridging the divide between science and policy, and I am grateful for the support of AECOM in working towards this. We are the implementers and the innovators aiming to develop and execute solutions to current and future climate impact, and our bottom-up approach should meet top-down policymaking to accelerate the world’s response to climate change.

In Egypt I can see that some progress has been made, and I will continue to work hard to drive this agenda forward.

The panel discussion, an official COP27 side event, was moderated by Danae Kyriakopoulou of the LSE, and I appeared alongside the Hon. Amira Saber, Parliament Member and Secretary General of the Foreign Relations Committee in Egypt; Stephen De Boer, Assistant Deputy Minister for the Environment and Climate Change, Canada; Cedric Frolick, Member of the National Assembly, South Africa; Dr Andrea Clayton from the Caribbean Maritime University in Jamaica; Nikita Shiel-Rolle, founder of the Young Marine Explorers in the Bahamas and Sarabeth Brockley of Nasdaq in the US.