We, The Youth Cafe, recognise the urgency of addressing climate change, with Africa facing heightened vulnerability to its devastating impacts. The latest findings from the IPCC’s Special Report on Global Warming reveal that our planet is now 1.1 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels, with projections indicating a potential 1.5-degree threshold as early as 2040. Disturbingly, each successive decade since 1850 has been more generous than the last. The escalating temperature trend driven by human-induced greenhouse emissions threatens health, food security, and economic stability. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 250,000 deaths per year may be directly linked to climate change-related issues such as heat stress, malnutrition, vector-borne diseases and water-borne diseases.
African Youth Climate Assembly 2023 Declaration
The Declaration set out the ambition of the Africa Youth Climate Assembly as a precursor to the inaugural African Union Heads of State and Government Africa Climate Summit (ACS) with the outcomes of the Assembly feeding into the African Heads of State and Government Nairobi Declaration. Acknowledging the mounting uncertainties surrounding our future due to climate change and the escalating severity of its effects, there is one indisputable fact: We will bequeath this planet to today's children, young individuals, and the generations yet to come;