Ever wonder what I do as a UN policy advocate? Read my speech from last year’s UN High-level Political Forum.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. My name is Steve Lee from Foundation for Environmental Stewardship, speaking on behalf of the United Nations Major Group for Children and Youth.
While there is some rapid improvement in renewable technologies, the rate of implementation of SDG7 targets is not in alignment with the systematically interlinked 2030 Agenda.
The displacement of States, neoliberalism, the obsession with growth, the militarization of economies and the rise in the power of transnational corporations have further exhausted the planet’s regenerative biocapacity. Dark money from fossil fuel companies is also perversely undermining civic and democratic processes. These trends are jeopardizing the future of young people and the planet as a whole.
We call upon the member states on seven priorities:
1. Increase the leadership of young women and girls in decision-making processes, including policymaking and scientific research, and enable young women and girls to participate in commerce, entrepreneurship, and capital investments for renewable energy away from fossil fuels.
2. Ensure decent job opportunities and skills training as we rapidly move away from fossil fuels for a just transition.
3. End fossil fuel subsidies, redirecting them towards energy efficiency and renewables.
4. Remove investment assets in fossil fuels companies from your sovereign wealth funds and pension funds and instead invest in renewable energy infrastructure.
5. Internalize externalities by using carbon pricing instruments; polluters should pay.
6. Fulfill your commitments to resource the Green Climate Fund to achieve the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
7. Prioritize vision-casting of a clean future. Member states must empower educators, civil society, and industry associations to educate the public for a collective imagination of an inclusive, equitable, prosperous, and sustainable future that is fully decarbonized and electrified from clean, sustainable sources of energy. You said you would through the Article 12 of the Paris Agreement.
Today’s children and youth are the last generation who can solve climate change whose solutions are energy efficiency and renewable energy to achieve a complete and rapid decarbonized future.
