Climate youth and the Dutch government
It is evident that youth is disproportionately affected by climate change. Not in the least because they will experience the most severe consequences if no immediate action is taken. In line with the Youth at Heart strategy, youth worldwide is an important stakeholder in climate related issues and a vital partner for the Dutch government.
Consulting youth
The Netherlands works with youth on both the national and international level. As a result of implementing the motion Sienot, the Dutch minister responsible for climate meets with national youth to talk about climate change and CO2 reduction twice a year. In these sessions, youth shares their views on the process of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which in turns contributes to the ability of the Netherlands to reach the 55% reduction goal by 2030.
When we move to the international level, climate youth are structurally included in consultation rounds for new policies and strategies. This happened, for example, whilst formulating the Global Climate Strategy, for which our international Youth Advisory Committee was also consulted. The Global Climate Strategy also draws on the generational impact assessment set out in previous coalition agreements, which makes sure that all new legislation is assessed in terms of its effects on future generations.
Locally, different embassies and consulates also took the initiative to create their own youth advisory committees. Benin, Ghana, Jordan, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Uganda, Yemen, Nigeria and Burundi are amongst the more than 20 embassies that have a functioning YAC. These local YACs are a great way to get solicited or unsolicited advice on different activities of the embassy, such as climate activities.
Partnering with youth-led organizations
While the above mostly relates to consulting individuals or advising bodies on climate-related issues, we also partner with youth-led organizations more broadly.
For example, through the We Are Tomorrow Global Partnership (WAT-GP) network, we support youth climate movements in different countries to develop national youth climate agendas. The Netherlands supports WAT-GP through facilitating contact with politicians and governmental decision makers, both in their national governments and at international conferences such as the COP.
WAT-GP is a bottom-up, youth-led and fully volunteer-based organization that supports youth climate organizations across the world to advocate for all concrete climate ambitions. For the Netherlands, WAT-GP is an interesting partner, whereas it represents a network of youth-led organizations, rather than one individual organization. Besides developing youth climate agendas, WAT-GP also campaigns to have their national government adopt these youth-led vision for the future
Providing platforms
Moving from consulting, through partnering, to providing platforms for youth. The Netherlands partners with the Dutch Youth Climate Movement (JKB) and the National Youth Council (NJR); inspiring groups of young persons that provide youth representatives on climate-related topics. Regarding the latter, and in relation to climate specifically, we partner with the UN Youth Representatives of the NJR that focus on sustainable development or biodiversity.
We do so in the (run-up to) the climate negotiations at the COP. The UN Youth Representatives join the Dutch delegation to COP every year and involve them in the preparation of the negotiations.
Furthermore, youth-led organizations from the Global South are equally supported to attend the COP, mainly through our partnerships with WAT-GP and Arab Youth Green Voices. By organizing events together with these parties at the COP and facilitating their meetings with high level decision makers, the Netherlands strives for meaningful youth participation at the COP.
Best practices
It’s important to re-emphasize that our approach to meaningful youth participation on climate related issues occurs both in the Netherlands and at our embassies abroad. As such, some interesting best practices have occurred all over the world. Let’s finish with some best practices that have occurred over time.
In September 2023, our International Green Growth department and WAT-GP organized a policy dialogue for the climate youth organizations to discuss loss and damage, one of the main negotiation topics at COP28. For some organizations, the theme was relatively new, while for others it was one of their main advocacy topics. The session aimed to get everyone on the same level of knowledge in preparation for COP28 and to exchange perspectives from different countries and organizations.
On the embassy level, our embassy in Jordan has organized different installments of Arab Youth Green Voices. In the 2023 installment, 16 young change agents from the MENA region visited Amman to get into dialogue with each other and local communities. A focus on positivity, solutions and success stories allows the youth to address climate issues, while also avoiding potential backlash due to an activist label in a local context.
On the other hand, in the run-up to the Africa Climate Summit, the Dutch Ambassador to Kenya and the Kenyan Minister for Environment co-convened a youth roundtable meeting with stakeholders participating in the Africa Youth Climate Assembly. The purpose of the event was to organize and mobilize different youth actors working on the summit and helping them collaborate for integrating youth voices at the summit.
All in all, providing a platform to youth and facilitating cross-pollination between different youth-led organization is at the basis of the Dutch approach. With climate challenges growing, and with things like the Youth at Heart strategy in place, the Netherlands foresees that youth will remain an important stakeholder in building towards a secure and sustainable future.