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Youth activists, Ministers, Heads of State, & UN representatives unite in Italy to present proposals. Shonagh meets delegates in Milan for the last event before COP26. What will come of the debates?
About The Road to Glasgow:
The Road to Glasgow is a docuseries explaining the major events leading to COP26, the United Nations Climate Conference and the world's largest climate event. This series will focus on climate and biodiversity events planned throughout 2021.
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EarthX is a media company dedicated to inspiring people to care about the planet. We take an omni channel approach to reach audiences of every age through its robust 24/7 linear channel distributed across cable and FAST outlets, along with dynamic, solution oriented short form content on social and digital platforms. EarthX is home to original series, documentaries and snackable content that offer sustainable solutions to environmental challenges. EarthX is the only network that delivers entertaining and inspiring topics that impact and inspire our lives on climate and sustainability.
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Youth activists, Ministers, Heads of State, & UN representatives unite in Italy to present proposals. Shonagh meets delegates in Milan for the last event before COP26. What will come of the debates?
About The Road to Glasgow:
The Road to Glasgow is a docuseries explaining the major events leading to COP26, the United Nations Climate Conference and the world's largest climate event. This series will focus on climate and biodiversity events planned throughout 2021.
EarthX
Love Our Planet.
The Official Network of Earth Day.
About Us:
At EarthX, we believe our planet is a pretty special place. The people, landscapes, and critters are likely unique to the entire universe, so we consider ourselves lucky to be here. We are committed to protecting the environment by inspiring conservation and sustainability, and our programming along with our range of expert hosts support this mission. We’re glad you’re with us.
EarthX is a media company dedicated to inspiring people to care about the planet. We take an omni channel approach to reach audiences of every age through its robust 24/7 linear channel distributed across cable and FAST outlets, along with dynamic, solution oriented short form content on social and digital platforms. EarthX is home to original series, documentaries and snackable content that offer sustainable solutions to environmental challenges. EarthX is the only network that delivers entertaining and inspiring topics that impact and inspire our lives on climate and sustainability.
EarthX Website: https://earthxmedia.com/
Follow Us:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/earthxmedia/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/earthxmedia
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EarthXMedia/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@earthxmedia
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EarthXMedia
How to watch:
United States:
- Spectrum
- AT&T U-verse (1267)
- DIRECTV (267)
- Philo
- FuboTV
- Plex
- Fire TV
#EarthDay #Environment #Sustainability #Ecofriendly #Conservation #EarthX
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TVTranscript
00:00It's the final lap, the homestretch to the UN's Council of the Parties, or COP, coming
00:09up in my home, Glasgow, Scotland. We're in Milan, Italy, where the last big meeting is
00:15being held, the pre-COP. The United Nations has seen the importance the youth of this
00:20world can make and have been dedicating activities before the big conferences. Here in Milan,
00:26it's the Youth for Climate conference. And it's hard to talk about youth and climate
00:31without mentioning Greta Thunberg, who had some harsh things to say about the governments
00:36of the world, and some harsh things to say about her hosts at the UN. Build back better,
00:41blah, blah, blah, green economy, blah, blah, blah. On this episode of Road to Glasgow.
00:56Hi, I'm Shona Smith, and the United Nations has come to Milan, Italy, for a series of
01:19meetings and conferences leading up to the big COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland. What is the
01:25COP? It's the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations on climate issues, and
01:30is held annually. This all began at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, when the global climate
01:37alarm was sounded. Since then, there have been a few key initiatives to come out of
01:41the COPs like the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreements. But for the most part, the COPs
01:47have been a lot of talk and not a lot of action. This year is COP26, the 26th annual
01:55meeting. Over 26 years of meetings, discussions, summits, and suggestions. Meanwhile, the climate
02:03continues to worsen. Frustration levels are high, especially in the youth, which brings
02:09us to Milan. While the main COP is being held in the UK, Italy is the co host of the COP
02:16and is why we're here. Officially called the Pre-COP, the purpose is to provide countries
02:21with an informal setting to discuss and exchange views on key political aspects heading into
02:27Glasgow. Since we're in Italy, I wanted to know more about how the country is doing on
02:32climate action. So I caught up with our friends Maria Sole Bianco to talk about Milan and
02:38Italy. I think like many other countries in the world, Italy needs still to do many
02:45things to fully, even design and develop a strategy that effectively address climate
02:55change. Milan is a city where a lot of things have happened in that direction. It's one
03:03of the first cities in Italy for sustainable mobility. So we have a lot of car sharing,
03:09bike sharing, a lot of roads where bikes can go, and parks. So it's getting into that
03:19direction, but it's still one of the highest cities in terms of traffic that you have.
03:25Yes, I've noticed that. You noticed? But this is really beautiful. I think there's a lot
03:30of effort to integrate greenery with the city. Yes, this is an important part. And here we
03:37have a great example because we have these new buildings, but also behind that we have
03:44a nice park. And this also showcases how a city can be smart and also biodiversity friendly.
03:52The action and the activity that we carry on here in the city, even if we are a hundred
03:58kilometres away from the sea, have an impact on the ocean and on the health of the planet
04:03in general. So we call this project The Sea Starts From Here, because it's all connected
04:10and we can be stewards of the city and of the ocean at the same time.
04:17At the COP and the pre-COP, the UN is trying to include the youth of the world. They define
04:23youth as people under the age of 35. And in Milan, two days before the pre-COP, the UN
04:30is holding the Youth for Climate event. Almost 400 people between 15 to 29 years of age have
04:37been selected and invited to attend so that the UN can hear their voices. These young
04:43people were selected based on activism and geographical and gender balance. They're calling
04:49this driving ambition, and it's a nice slogan. The UN is encouraging the young people to
04:55contribute to the increase in climate ambition coming out of the 2015 Paris Agreement.
05:02But honestly, I'm a bit confused trying to figure all this out. I ran into several United
05:07Nations youth programmes that seemed to have the same purpose. I felt I needed a road map
05:12to navigate all the acronyms. Let's see if I've got this straight.
05:17First up is Youngo, and I sat down with Hita Lakhani, representing the Global South.
05:23So Youngo is the official mechanism, so we're the official youth constituency within the
05:27UNFCCC. There are nine constituencies for civil society engagement in general. The UN
05:32process is a country-driven, or in the UNFCCC case, a party-driven process. A country is
05:37called a party. And for civil society to engage, we're observers to the party-driven process,
05:43and there are nine observer constituencies. Youngo is one of the nine. We're basically
05:47a volunteer-based network of young people from across the world. We have close to 10,000
05:52members from 150-plus countries, close to 1,000-plus organisations that are part of
05:56our membership of volunteers that form our network called Youngo. The way we work is
06:02through working groups, so we have multiple working groups, close to about 20 now, that
06:06focus on different aspects, as long as it's related to climate and youth. Some of our
06:10working groups are very thematic, like very UNFCCC negotiation-based, like for example
06:15adaptation, mitigation, loss and damage, technology, finance. But we also have a lot of cross-cutting
06:21working groups like gender, human rights, health, indigenous peoples, renewable energy,
06:27cities, so on and so forth. So we're really, like I mentioned, a space open for youth to
06:31engage as long as the topic is relevant to young people and to climate. And there's the
06:36group of seven who are on the Secretary-General's Youth Advisory Group. I talked to Sophia
06:41Kiani about this. So it's a different group than Youngo. We were specifically created
06:46in order to advise the Secretary-General regularly on his climate action policy. So
06:51the seven of us from around the world, we meet with him regularly and we give him feedback
06:55on his climate strategy. And in addition to that, we hold consultations with the young
07:00people from around the world, both regionally and nationally, in order to basically get
07:04their temperament on what they think we should do as far as climate action and what specifically
07:08the Secretary-General should be doing. Why did the Secretary-General create this advisory
07:13group? I mean, I think he just wanted another way to be able to concretely engage with young
07:18people and to have young people meaningfully contribute to his climate strategy and to
07:23be able to first-hand provide him like our experiences and to give him basically like
07:28an update on what we're doing and what we think that people in our specific countries
07:32are doing as far as climate action goes. Because I think that it's great because we're all
07:36from seven different regions from around the world. And so we're able to kind of give our
07:39expertise on like, okay, for me, like what are US climate activists saying? What are
07:44we planning? And so we're able to give him regular updates, which I think is very valuable
07:48and very helpful. And the UN has other programs and groups and committees like Project 17,
07:54the youth ambassadors selected to attend this meeting and others. Is it a genuine effort
08:00from the UN to hear the youth or is it simply lip service? Some like Greta Thunberg believe
08:06it's an empty effort while others believe it's a genuine effort to include the voices
08:11of young people in the climate policies determined in the COP. I want to find the answer.
08:18Build back better, blah, blah, blah. Green economy, blah, blah, blah. Net zero by 205, 2050, blah, blah, blah.
08:31Net zero by 2050, blah, blah, blah. Net zero, blah, blah, blah. Climate neutral, blah, blah, blah.
08:41This is all we hear from our so-called leaders. Words, words that sound great, but so far
08:50has led to no action. Our leaders' intentional lack of action is a betrayal towards all present
08:58and future generations. If this is what they consider to be climate action, then we don't
09:04want it. They invite cherry-picked young people to meetings like this to pretend that they
09:11are listening to us, but they are not. Hope is not passive. Hope is not blah, blah, blah.
09:20Hope is telling the truth. Hope is taking action. And hope always comes from the people
09:28At the end of the day, we are not negotiators. We can't make these decisions for ourselves.
09:33So we have to wait for someone to take this into the COP for us. Even though we're there
09:37as civil society, we have a seat at the plenary. We can speak, but we can't make the decisions.
09:41We can't draft the text that's being done. And this is, I think, the biggest mismatch.
09:46And I think this is the sort of frustration that everyone has been feeling to see that,
09:52you know, people are shouting. They're taking to the streets now. A few years ago, when
09:55I started back in 2015-16, the awareness for even within youth was much lower. This
10:01has really skyrocketed, which is amazing to see so many young people, which is why we're
10:04an event like we are today, because everyone is talking about youth inclusion. But we really
10:10need to see how meaningfully young people are being included. Are their voices being
10:14really heard? Or is it just another declaration that's floating somewhere on the internet
10:19for people to look at? And this is somehow not matching a lot of the times.
10:24Here in Milan, I want to know if we're being tokenised like Greta talked about, or if there's
10:29a real point and purpose to these meetings like Hita and Sofia are working towards. I'm
10:35going to find out.
10:43While here at the Youth for Climate concert soundcheck, I ran into my new friend AY Young,
10:49who is performing at the conference. AY told me about how he struggled after being on the
10:54X Factor, but found the energy to continue making music. Upon learning that over a billion
11:01people don't have a reliable source of power, he used his music to bring sustainable energy
11:07to those without it. He is a rising voice in the global climate effort.
11:11I'm very action oriented. I've been a young leader for a year now. And I understand that
11:18sentiment of, man, are we really just in here to say something? Or are they really
11:22listening? You know, I think it's because we have this, we're so siloed. And even the
11:29youth is becoming siloed, I think, in this movement.
11:33Here is someone, part of a UN youth movement, Project 17, who is doing something. Project
11:3917 is all about the 17 climate goals recognised by the UN, and they selected 17 young people
11:46from around the world to be ambassadors for it. AY is the only American in the group.
11:52AY has seen a need in the world, the lack of access to energy, which is goal number
11:58seven. And he started doing something about it, providing renewable batteries, which is
12:03why he calls his concerts, The Battery Tour.
12:06No, it's not just about the concert, it's about an action. It's about after the concert,
12:11someone getting access to energy. Around the world, because there's a billion people that
12:15don't have energy. So let's get, you know, the world plugged into renewable energy. Right.
12:21So it's more along the lines of what I'm seeing from the youth, from like your Greta
12:25Thunbergs and your youth leaders of like, yeah, we can talk about something. Right.
12:30But action. And so I like to do the concert and then look around. Oh, OK, that kid in
12:37Honduras just got plugged in. Good. So let's amplify impact.
12:42With the undercurrent of frustration running through the youth, I asked AY if he's felt
12:47it and where he thinks it might be coming from.
12:50Honestly, when I heard about COP, I was like, oh, my God, like what's about to happen? Like,
12:56I'm actually still I'm here at COP right now. I'm looking around. I'm like, OK, so I'm guessing
13:00that like by tomorrow, like millions of people are just going to have like energy or like
13:05water or like what catastrophic thing is happening that like so many companies putting things
13:10on hold, flying out, people spending millions of dollars. Get my logo in front of that place.
13:14Like all this talking, talking, talking, talking, talking. And I'm like, I'm still trying to
13:18figure out, is the world about to be saved tomorrow? Like there's droughts and like it's
13:22warming up and like all this stuff's happening. Right. Like we're losing species. And I'm
13:27trying to figure out, like, what is so cool about COP, though? I really want to know because
13:32I it's so many like please tell me how all these people talking, you know, fixes all
13:38these issues. Like I share the frustration and like, OK, you can talk all day, you know,
13:44where's the action? Back at Youth for Climate, U.S. presidential envoy John Kerry answered
13:50some questions in a special session with the youth. He, too, was tired of all the talk
13:55and countries not doing their part. The IEA tells us we have to deploy renewables six
14:03times faster than we are today. We have to build forests five times faster than we are
14:08today. We have to stop coal five times faster than we are today. We have to deploy electric
14:13vehicles 22 times faster than we are today. So we're behind. And we have to stop the BS
14:23that is being thrown at us by a number of countries that have not been willing to sign
14:28up to what Great Britain has signed up to, we've signed up to, Japan, Canada, the EU.
14:36That is to keep 1.5 degrees alive. You have to insist. You have to light up the Internet.
14:43You have to light up social media. You have to do everything you can in this lead up to
14:47the COP to make certain that we are pushing other countries to do more than they have
14:54been willing to accept today so that we can, over the next 10 years, keep the 1.5 degrees
15:01alive. Well, clearly, it's not just the youth who are frustrated. Even seasoned politicians
15:08like John Kerry are feeling it. I'm really having trouble wrestling through this talk
15:13versus action. There's got to be answers. Let's find out when we return to Road to Glasgow.
15:22It's easy to march and protest and demand action. But what do we want to see happen?
15:28What are we protesting for? If we're calling for climate justice, what does that look like?
15:34If we're saying, let's get to net zero carbon emissions, how do we make that happen? I think
15:39for action to occur, we've got to be a wee bit more specific and a lot less general.
15:46And disappointingly, as I've talked to youth leaders, it's been difficult to get specifics.
15:51But youth ambassador from Italy, Daniella Guadagnolo, Sofia Chiani from the Secretary-General's
15:57Youth Advisory Group, and Young Go Global South leader Hita Lakhani had some good ideas.
16:03For me, one of the issues that I really care about, because I have a background also in
16:09IT and also economics, is about the technology and also the storage of green energy. Because
16:15at the moment, there is not a technology which is advanced enough to allow us to really exploit
16:23the potential of green energy. Because at the moment, we are still affixed with our
16:29economic models, which are based on CO2, oil, carbon and similar. But I think that for the
16:36future, we have also to shift this economic model to a more sustainable one. And for me,
16:42the role of energy is crucial.
16:44Creating specific measures in order to prevent greenwashing. So having specific claims and
16:51specific guidelines in order for something to be a public advertisement. So that's one
16:57specific thing that we discussed. Other specific things we discussed were implementing climate
17:03change curriculum into schools and then having a framework for what exactly would be taught,
17:08including climate justice, talking about intersectionality, talking about environmental
17:12racism in schools. So not just specifically having a climate change curriculum, broadly
17:17speaking, but also integrating climate change education within different frameworks like
17:21history and other subjects that are already taught in schools.
17:25One, we've been championing for young people to have a seat at the negotiations. So to
17:30every country to have youth negotiators as part of their delegation. You build that capacity,
17:36you train them, young people can do a lot of capacity building. We have young people
17:39who've been part of processes for years. So build the capacity of young people to be able
17:44to do the technical negotiations, ensure that they're part of your country delegation, give
17:49them a seat. And there are some countries that have amazing youth negotiator programs
17:53or youth delegate programs, but it's only a handful of countries and a majority of them
17:57are European based. So there's a lot of disparity. Global South voices are completely omitted
18:01from the technical or from from the physical participation in that sense as a youth negotiator.
18:07So that would be a huge win. We've been, you know, for years, we've been saying this young
18:11people need to be at the table and you can give them a seat at the table by making them
18:15a part of your delegation, not by having an event outside of the COP for them. Because
18:19that's not a seat at the table. We're just, you know, creating a new event which has no
18:23connection to the to the original one.
18:25A seat at the table. When Hita said that, I wasn't sure exactly what she meant. Aren't
18:30these meetings and young leader groups called by the UN for just that purpose? She cleared
18:35it up.
18:37The UN, the way it's structured really cannot make decisions. And that's the problem. People
18:41expect the UN to do things, but the UN cannot make decisions, especially the UNFCCC or the
18:45UN Climate Change Secretariat. It's a secretariat. It convenes meetings, it brings people together,
18:51it channels the process, but it does not take decisions. And this is where we're stuck.
18:55Decisions are taken by countries. That's why I said it's a country driven or it's a party
18:59driven process. And we need countries, for example, Italy, they're hosting this event
19:03now. It's an entirely country driven process, which is amazing. It's a great in into the
19:07process that you can just say, as Italy, they could just take this entire declaration and
19:12say this is going to be Italy's position at COP. But they're not going to do that. And
19:16this is just one declaration. This is one event. It's not. We've seen this for years.
19:21What we do need is real countries to listen to young people and not just say, OK, this
19:25is very inspiring. We want to listen to you. But what do you do after listening to us?
19:30And I think a lot of the times, you know, that doesn't match. They just want to listen
19:35and applaud. But at the end of it, they don't really want to champion. Like I said, we need
19:40to be a part of the delegations. Only then can our voices, we can speak for ourselves
19:44as long as we have the seat to.
19:46It's starting to make sense to me. Hita says that the UN can facilitate, can bring people
19:51together to find creative ways to solve problems. I talked to my friend Maria Solea about this.
19:58Do you feel like the IUCN and the UN organizations like that, that they're built for action?
20:05No. OK. I don't think so. I think that they are built for policy and to inspire action,
20:15to provide an agenda. But the action at the end, they happen at other level, grassroots
20:21levels, you know. But still, those moments of communities from all over the world getting
20:28together to discuss about solutions, to interact with each other, to share frustration, but
20:35also to inspire each other with solutions are fundamental. But at the end, the action
20:41needs to happen at the grassroots level.
20:43Right. So a lot of that frustration is just misplaced expectation about what these organizations
20:49are for, right? They're for discussing, but it needs to translate to...
20:55Yes, and they should have high ambition. I mean, you're right, 100%. They are a place
21:03for discussion. They are a place where strategy can be developed. They are a place where target
21:10can be set. So we need to be really part of the discussion in terms of deciding the
21:18ambition of those targets, of those goals, of those objectives. But at the end, the action
21:24doesn't happen in the UN level. They happen grassroots here. And so it's up to all the
21:30participants then to bring back the message to their nation and implement it in order
21:35to meet the objectives and the targets.
21:38I'm starting to discover something that is really helping me on this road. Certainly,
21:43I've been frustrated by the lack of action at these meetings and workshops and conferences.
21:48But here's what I've been experiencing here in Milan. The United Nations is not an organization
21:55that can provide action. They are a coming together to help plan the action. It's up
22:01to each country, each government and really each person to act. The UN cannot make them.
22:08By changing my expectations at these UN events, I'm less frustrated by them. Of course, it
22:15leaves a frustration at the various governments of the world who keep doing nothing or even
22:20worse say they're doing something when they're actually not. I've learned a lot on this road
22:26and I'm looking forward to going home. It's Scotland and COP26 on the next episode of
22:32Road to Glasgow.