Over a thousand young people from more than 140 countries closed out the three-day Climate Change Conference of Youth (COY17) just days before the official opening of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

The Climate Change Conference of Youth is an annual event under the banner of YOUNGO – the Official Youth Constituency of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Its 17th edition was organized and led by five Egyptian youth organizations namely: Act—Sustainable, El Emam Foundation, Enviro-X, Youthink Green Egypt, and Youth Loves Egypt, with the support of the Egyptian Ministry of Youth and Sports and endorsed by the COP President Designate.

“Young people are the Plan A and only plan in this most difficult moment, and their voices are needed to fight against backsliding, delay or deprioritization of climate action,” said Ambassador Aboulmagd added, the COP27 President Special Representative.

Featuring 68 workshops, panel discussions and side events held over three days, COY serves as a space for capacity building and policy development to prepare young people for their participation at COP, thereby empowering them and formally bringing their voices to the UNFCCC processes.

The key outcome of COY17 is a policy document called the Global Youth Statement, a comprehensive text providing youth input to world leaders on the steps they believe should be taken to advance climate action. The 66-page policy document provides detailed advice on a range of topics from mitigation and adaptation to just transition and financing, including a call for a loss and damage facility.

“From heat waves across Europe to droughts across Africa and massive flooding in Asia, the past year of extreme weather events have served as another wake-up call for humanity,” the text reads. “Global Youth urges political leaders to take heed, take charge, and take action. We have no more time to lose. Our future literally depends on it.”

The statement was presented to the incoming Egypt COP Presidency on the final day of COY17.

“We welcome the great work done to produce a rich, comprehensive and detailed policy statement that we consider a very important input to the COP negotiations and its outcomes,” said Ambassador Wael Aboulmagd, Special Representative of the Egypt COP27 Presidency, in a statement delivered on behalf of the incoming COP President.

The Egypt COP Presidency has taken a number of steps to ensure that the youth constituency is playing a key role in COP27 including the first ever Youth Climate Pavilion and Youth-led Climate Forum, the creation of a full Young and Future Generations day co-created and implemented with YOUNGO, and the establishment of a COP27 Presidency Youth Envoy, Dr. Omnia El Omrani.

“The biggest issue we want to address is climate justice and intergenerational equity,” said Dr. Omrani. “As the largest demographic on Earth, we are disproportionately impacted by the physical and mental health impacts of climate change. At the same time, we contribute the least in the decision-making process, so we don’t want to be excluded. We want and deserve to be meaningfully engaged.”

“As young people we are in the forefront facing climate change consequences and we have a major role to influence global attention and commitment,” said Saad Ukkas, program co-lead of the first-ever COP Children and Youth Pavilion.

Organizers of the COY and the youth agenda at COP were clear about the critical importance of creating a formal link between youth voices and the COP process.

“COY17 represented a leap transformation point in the role of youth in enforcing climate action across the global climate agenda,” said Abdelrahman Fahmy, Managing Partner, youthinkgreen Egypt. “History will remember this COY hosted by Egypt as the igniting point for youth driven implementation.”

The key findings of the policy paper will be introduced via two roundtables under the Youth-led Climate Forum on Young and Future Generations Day on November 10 at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh. For the first time ever, this youth statement will find its way to the COP Presidency’s Action Agenda where youth representatives, Ministers and negotiators will discuss the expectations and the demands agreed by the youth activists.

“Youth participation needs to be integrated into a holistic vision of climate change governance for deeper structural changes to take effect,” said Claudia Ondo, National Coordinator of YouthConnekt Gabon. “This requires accepting the sharing of power between young people and adults. And it means letting us speak our minds, tell our stories and offer our solutions to achieve a resilient future and climate-neutral society.”

In addition to providing programmatic linkages between the youth constituency and the formal UNFCCC process, the incoming COP Presidency provided financial support for youth to attend COY17.

“Not only did COY17 finalize the 2022 Global Youth Statement it also saw youth finding new knowledge, connections and funding to implement their creative solutions, especially dynamic new initiatives coming from young Egyptians,” said Xan Northcott, Global North Focal Point, Children and Youth Constituency to UNFCCC.

Microsoft, together with Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced its role as Strategic Technology Partner and Principal Sponsor of the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27). The United Nations conference, to be hosted in Sharm-El Sheikh on November 6-18, 2022, provides a platform for world leaders, businesses, and citizens to come together to discuss their role in mitigating the climate crisis.

Through the partnership, Microsoft aims to help people and organizations better understand the transformative potential for technology to help solve many of today’s complex climate challenges.

During the signing ceremony held at The Ministry of Foreign Affairs offices in Cairo, Microsoft Egypt General Manager, Mirna Arif, commented: “We believe in the transformative power of the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties and are proud to again play a key role in this year’s event.?We applaud the efforts of the Egyptian government, under President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, in prioritizing climate change as part of Egypt Vision 2030. Technology will provide answers to many of today’s most pressing climate challenges, and COP27 is an opportunity for the public and private sectors to collaborate on climate solutions to accelerate progress in Egypt and across the wider region.”

Microsoft Vice Chair and President, Brad Smith, added, “The world needs to move faster and COP27 will provide an important forum to move from pledges to progress. We are proud to partner with the Egyptian government and support this urgent effort.”

H.E?COP27 President-Designate, Sameh Shoukry, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Arab Republic of Egypt pointed out that the Egyptian presidency is actively engaging with leading companies like Microsoft and other stakeholders to speed up climate action. Egypt’s government believes in the innovative power of the private sector to tackle climate challenges and in their ability to influence their immediate stakeholders, including suppliers, investors, employers, and partners to make an outsized impact on climate change.

Ambassador Ashraf Ibrahim, General Coordinator for organizational and financial aspects of the conference?welcomed Microsoft as a Principal Partner of COP27. He emphasized the important role played by the international private sector in promoting sustainable business models and supporting the agreed climate goals. Ambassador Ashraf Ibrahim highlighted the contributions provided by Microsoft on the road to the conference in Sharm-El-Sheikh and looked forward to the continuation of this support leading up to an impactful COP.

Microsoft is accelerating progress toward a more sustainable future by reducing its environmental footprint, advancing research, helping its customers build sustainable solutions, and advocating for policies that benefit the environment.

In 2020, Microsoft announced an ambitious commitment and detailed plan to be carbon negative by 2030 and to remove from the environment all the carbon the company emitted since its founding by 2050. The company has built on this pledge by adding commitments to be water positive by 2030, zero waste by 2030, and to protect ecosystems by developing a Planetary Computer.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

Microsoft Egypt Media Relations; [email protected] or [email protected]

Note to editors:

Over 40,000 expected attendees to participate in COP27 and other related activities from November 6-18

● Sharm El-Sheikh Climate Implementation Summit, thematic days, flagship initiatives, and Green Zone activities will engage with climate and other overlapping global challenges

● Diverse representation will include around 100 heads of states and governments, and tens of thousands of delegates, civil society, media and all other relevant stakeholders

Cairo, Egypt – November 2022 – COP27, the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, hosted by Egypt in Sharm El Sheikh will see delegates from around the world participate in the annual climate change negotiations. With over 40,000 estimated attendees, the summit is expected to host one of the largest number of participants in the annual global climate conference, which is running from November 6 to 18 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

Speaking ahead of the conference, Ambassador Wael Aboulmagd, Special Representative to the COP27 President said: “The Egyptian Presidency team has worked tirelessly to create an enabling environment that is conducive to successful negotiations. As the hosts of the COP, we are keen on bringing representative of nations and stakeholders from across the world and to provide the required momentum to address the required actions for urgent and at-scale implementation of climate commitments and pledges.”

The Sharm El-Sheikh International Convention Center (SHICC) will form the overall Blue Zone for COP27. The Blue Zone is where all negotiations amongst delegates are set to take place. In addition, a long list of dynamic events will be organized by Governments and accredited observers including youth advocates and scientists.

A 22,500 square meter Green Zone is where the business community, youth, civil society, academia, and artists from all over the world will have an additional space to be present and participate. It aims to promote inclusive and dynamic dialogue and engagement among climate actors via events, exhibitions, workshops, cultural performances, and talks.

The Sharm El-Sheikh Climate Implementation Summit will take place November 7-8, bringing all participating heads of state and government. Following the summit’s inauguration, several roundtables will be held to focus on six key topics: Just Transitions, Food Security, Innovative Finance for Climate and Development, Investing in the Future of Energy, Water Security, and Climate Change and The Sustainability of Vulnerable Communities.

On the sidelines of the global negotiations set to take place in Egypt during the conference, the COP27 Egyptian Presidency has also designated several key thematic days that will include panel pledging opportunities, discussions, roundtables, and side events. These thematic days are a part of efforts to advance climate action that can address existing implementation bottlenecks and gaps, and deepen engagement with youth, women, civil society, and indigenous people, among others, at the center of the discussions. Key focus areas include the promise of innovation and clean technologies as well as the centrality of water and agriculture to the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, energy transition, decarbonization efforts and finance. Three days will be dedicated to youth and future generations, gender and civil society, their contributions, the challenges they face, the solutions they offer, and how to mainstream their engagement in planning and implementation of climate policies.

Egypt’s Presidency of COP27 has launched several initiatives that will take place at the conference. These initiatives include COP27 Presidency Sustainable Urban Resilience for the next Generation (SURGe), Initiative on Climate Action and Nutrition (I-CAN), Action on Water, Adaptation and Resilience (AWARe), Food and Agriculture for Sustainable Transformation Initiative (Fast), Global Waste Initiative 50 by 2050, Africa Just & Affordable Energy Transition Initiative, Decent Life Initiative for a Climate Resilient Africa, Climate Responses for Sustaining Peace (CRSP), African Women’s Climate Adaptive Priorities (CAP), Friends of Greening National Investment Plans, Enhancing Nature-based Solutions for Climate Transformation (ENACT).

The COP27 mobile application serves as an easy-to-use resource with information on the conference. This includes indoor navigation of the venue, event schedules, trip planning and more – making it a go-to guide for all COP27 conference attendees.