Title of paper

6. Further reading recommendations

Mapaure, I. 2013. Review of climate change in Namibia: projected trends, vulnerability and effects. In O.C. Ruppel / K. Ruppel-Schlichting (eds.). Environmental Law and Policy in Namibia – Towards making Africa the tree of life. Windhoek. Hanns Seidel Foundation: 245 – 264.
Von Bassewitz, N. 2013. International climate change policy and legislation: where do we stand? In O.C. Ruppel / K. Ruppel-Schlichting (eds.). Environmental Law and Policy in Namibia – Towards making Africa the tree of life. Windhoek. Hanns Seidel Foundation: 311 – 357.

Youth Involvement in Climate Change Issues

By Brian Riruako

1. Young people and climate change

The core cause of climate change is brought upon by human activities and thus all, including the youth, should be at the forefront of the fight to combat the impacts of climate change. Apart from that, the impacts of climate change are long term impacts, which means, that those who are young at present and their children will be affected most by the impacts of climate change. As the youth is said to be the future leaders, it is the youth that must come up with answers to questions as to in what environment future generations want to live in. They will live with the decisions made by today’s decision-makers. This is particularly true in countries like Namibia, where the majority of people are young. Currently, 70% of the Namibian population is younger than 35 which illustrates that climate change is a pressing issue especially for the youth.
The involvement of the youth in climate change issues is also demanded in a number of international and national legal documents.

The role of the youth in the international community under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has been acknowledged since the early days of the convention and from 2005 onwards the yearly Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings have been accompanied by a youth conference. The deliberations and decisions from these youth conferences are brought to the COP meetings at the highest level. All UNFCCC countries, including Namibia, are urged to send representatives to the Conference of the Youth.

To influence policy through effective communication streams is also demanded on the national level, namely by the current National Development Plan (NDP).

2. Stakeholders of youth action

In the last decade youth involvement in the climate change debate has gained momentum on the whole African continent. Organisations and coalitions have been established on a national level in many African countries. Networking between national coalitions is supported by a continent wide institution.

2.1 African Youth Initiative on Climate Change (AYICC)

The African Youth Initiative on Climate Change (AYICC) is an umbrella organisation for youth networking that was conceived in 2006 in Nairobi, Kenya, during the 2nd International Conference of Youth held before the UNFCCC, COP 12. This initiative has continued to connect, share knowledge, ideas, experiences, skills and strategies on youth action around the continent on climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The members of the African Youth Initiative on Climate Change deal not only with climate change issues but have broadened their topic to sustainable development. In this regard, the AYICC links climate change with poverty reduction targets.

The African Youth Initiative provides a platform through which the youth can speak out its opinion and inform politicians in other national governments. In Kenya, AYICC was already successful in terms of youth influencing policy making and fighting for some change along the sustainable development route. But AYICC is not only a platform to do advocacy on a national level. It is also effective to address regional challenges at international gatherings, such as the UNFCCC COP conferences.

2.2 Namibian Youth Coalition on Climate Change (NYCCC)

Participation of the youth in climate change issues takes place through the Namibian Youth Coalition on Climate Change (NYCCC), which was created as part of the Namibia Climate Change Adaptation Youth Action Programme process. The objective of the NYCCC is to make individual climate change initiatives stronger and to help those initiatives in networking and sharing of information and experiences. It brings together youth groups, environmental education institutions and governmental departments who are dealing with climate change issues, the youth or both.
However, the main responsibility for climate change activities and the mobilisation of interested youth is still with the individual groups and organisation (MET, 2011: 19). One of the members at the moment is a continental wide youth initiative – the African Youth Initiative on Climate Change. However, there are also some Namibian organisations which have been proactive in the initial stages of NYCCC. These are the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture, the National Youth Council, the Ministry of Education, the Namib Desert Environmental Education Trust, the Young Achievers Empowerment Project and the Physically Active Youth.
Currently, NYCCC is a loose network of institutions, youth groups and individuals who all have in common the interest in climate change issues. The coalition has the scope to be developed into a more formal coalition in the future, but this will not necessarily take place. The future direction of the coalition should be rather decided through a dialogue among its members (MET, 2011: 19).

3. Namibia Climate Change Adaptation Youth Action Programme

The Climate Change Adaptation Youth Action Programme was developed in July and August 2011 under the youth outreach component of the Africa Adaptation Project Namibia (AAP NAM). AAP NAM is a project implemented by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism of Namibia with funding obtained from the Government of Japan through the United Nations Development Programme.
The NYCCC framed the programme for the Ministry of Environment and Tourism. This was done during the Namibia Climate Change Adaptation Youth Conference which took place in July 2012 in Windhoek. This conference was a unique opportunity to bring over 300 young people between the ages of 15 and 35 together from high schools, youth groups, civil society organizations, government and the private sector. The Namibia Climate Change Adaptation Youth Action Programme was meant to be the Namibian youth’s response to the call for youth involvement voiced in the National Policy on Climate Change. It provides the broad principles for actions that should be taken to enable the youth to become decision-makers and actors in climate change matters. Its strength lies in the development process – it is a programme developed by the youth for the youth with support from national and international experts on environmental issues and lifelong learning.
The Namibia Climate Change Adaptation Youth Action Programme is not meant to be a blueprint for a programme to be implemented top-down by the government. It is rather a guideline and a tool for all stakeholders developing and implementing climate change activities focusing on the youth in Namibia. It is the vision of the programme to empower the youth to take effective action on climate change adaptation by creating a steady stream of small and bigger activities by the various stakeholders being these youth groups at grassroots level, civil society organizations and institutions within academia, government institutions, private sector companies or international partners (MET, 2011: 3).