We are not "just cheerleaders" — Preparing for COP15 with YESS and GYBN
“Everyone’s participation is important” and “The youth needs to take part in the process” are phrases we are used to hearing in the discourse of NGOs, UN organizations and the Fridays for Future movement. But what does this participation look like and what can we actually move in those super formalized macro processes? Are we, as youth representatives “just cheerleaders” as a recent study suggests?
For us, Nada and Niklas, members of the Young Ecosystem Service Specialists (YESS) network, the interest in international climate and biodiversity negotiations accompanied our PhD research and we were curious to participate. We found out that preparatory meetings of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Conference of the Parties (or CBD’s COP, if you’re into abbreviations) can be watched on the CBD’s YouTube channel. But let’s be honest, who watches three hours of a technical chamber’s debate without context?
We did not even know much about the working of these meetings — of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) and of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI) — before getting in touch with the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN) in January this year.
The “open” processes are a little more complicated than expected. GYBN was great, first of all for making it possible for us to take part as observers, at the very last minute! Their organization of the preparation process was incredible. In CBD, the youth network has been participating in the conference since 2012, following Decision XI/8 at COP11 where the parties officially recognised youth as an important stakeholder.
After three days of preparatory workshops and context about UN bureaucracies, the first “informal session” of SBSTTA (pronounced “Sab-sta”!) finally started. If by now you’re curious about the whole thing, read GYBN’s praised manual on the CBD’s COPs!
The main activity in this informal session was tracking what delegates say, so we could do our part and help the youth delegates formulate responses to the countries’ most controversial points or blind-spots — so stressful… It’s almost like doing a simultaneous translation!
As a young China-watcher working in Brazil where the CBD was started, and as a YESS member, Niklas is obviously very excited about the first environmental COP in China and hoped to get some early insights into the COP’s host country’s positions. However, there was few concrete and new information. The lack of funding and endless discussions about the use of the right indicators for measuring progress are well-known points for discussion among countries from the Global North and South.
Hearing the discourses at policy forums we hear about periodically in the news showed us how highly complex the debate about the future of our relations with nature are. This became most clear in the problematic issue of the current debates: synthetic biology. The discussion (see e.g. this video from the World Science Festival) about how we should deal with the technological and scientific possibilities of creating completely new forms of life and where the limits to human intervention in nature lie, mobilizes ethical and emotional concerns. We, as young people will be most affected by the choices made today, but apparently have little voice in deciding over it.
Another (sad but) interesting insight was my current home country of Brazil’s vague and stalling part in the process. Citing internet connectivity issues, the Brazilian government is one of the only actors insisting on an in-person meeting, which, due to the pandemic, is still very difficult to plan safely.
The engagement of some smaller countries like the Netherlands was encouraging to see, when they gave their speaking time to their UN youth delegate. Also, NGOs representing women’s and indigenous people’s rights like the Third World Network made really inspiring interventions on the necessity of including more diverse views in assessments and decisions that affect the future of the planet. They were the most interesting actors for the youth to collaborate with and reinforce each other’s statements.
So, what have we learned in this process so far? Making a difference as a young scientist is really challenging, but there are movements and NGOs out there that are fighting for the same causes! Accompanying global decision-making seems like a daunting task, but when we take it on in our networks and groups of peers, it is possible. Let’s engage with political decision-making, so the future that we, as current representatives of the youth do not look back at this historical opportunity as another lost one … and do not remember ourselves as cheerleaders of the process.
References
GYBN. 2018. CBD in a Nutshell. https://www.gybn.org/publications
TWN Third World Network. 2021. Briefings on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. http://www.cbd-alliance.org/sites/default/files/documents/Post2020%20BP4_state%20of%20play.pdf
Yunita, S. A., Soraya, E., & Maryudi, A. (2018). “We are just cheerleaders”: Youth’s views on their participation in international forest-related decision-making fora. Forest Policy and Economics, 88, 52–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2017.12.012
Written by
Niklas Weins, University of Campinas; and
Nada Saidi, University of Dundee.
