During these unprecedented times, it is more important than ever that governments, policymakers, academics, business leaders and civil society come together to find innovative ways of supporting communities and providing hope to younger generations. The pandemic has further highlighted and exacerbated the existing inequalities in our societies, with respect to access to resources, information and power dynamics. Children and young people are among the hardest hit; girls and young women in particular have been disproportionately impacted.
PACT FOR THE FUTURE |PART TWO
We commit to achieving a world in which humanity lives in harmony with nature, to conserving and sustainably using our planet’s marine and terrestrial resources, including through sustainable lifestyles, and sustainable consumption and production, to reversing the trends of environmental degradation, to promoting resilience, to reducing disaster risk, and to halting ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss. We will conserve and sustainably use oceans and seas, freshwater resources, as well as forests, mountains and dry lands and protect biodiversity, ecosystems and wildlife.
A Position Statement on Climate Change and Health for COP28
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.