TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
A youth perspective to revive the G20: double down on climate
In a year of heightened uncertainties, where ecosystem collapse, breaches of international peace, and rising inequalities highlight the frailty of global governance infrastructures, the “fit for purpose” of multilateral forums like the G20 is increasingly brought in to scrutiny.
Change Size
Wem>What of the value of multilateralism, financial stability, or economic growth if we were rid of a livable planet? Youth call on the G20 to redouble on climate action, now.
In a year of heightened uncertainties, where ecosystem collapse, breaches of international peace, and rising inequalities highlight the frailty of global governance infrastructures, the “fit for purpose” of multilateral forums like the G20 is increasingly brought in to scrutiny. While this scrutiny is and should be welcomed, we know a coordinated global response to the most pressing issues the world faces is the most effective way of combating these challenges. The G20 Climate and Environment Ministers meeting this week is a critical opportunity for the Group to reinstate its relevance and propel the urgent action and meaningful multilateralism that planetary challenges demand today.
The G20 has evolved to broaden and deepen its engagements from financial crisis management and macroeconomic stability in its conception, to themes such as trade and investment, technology, and development, and, more recently, global health. The voices of the G20, simultaneously, have also diversified from a more singularly focused Finance Track, to a range of Sherpa Tracks, including several expert groups and stakeholder engagement groups providing recommendations to G20 leaders.
Yet, as the world burns and floods under the pressure of unprecedented climatic changes, what of the value of global financial stability, economic stimulation, or international cooperation if we were robbed of a sustainable and livable planet to exist? This was a key message delivered by the Youth 20 (Y20), the official youth engagement group of the G20, which met last month in Jakarta and handed over its Communiqué to the Indonesian Presidency. This week’s Climate and Environment Ministerial Meeting in Bali is a pivotal moment for the G20 to step up and respond to the following Y20 calls to action.
Preluding the recent adoption of an historic UN Resolution R2HE, youth delegates are calling on G20 governments to enshrine and enforce the intergenerational right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment in national constitutions and international law. A rights-based approach, in the words of the late Kofi Annan, “empowers people to demand justice as a right, not as a charity, and gives communities a moral basis from which to claim international assistance when needed.” Evidence shows that countries where environmental rights are protected in national institutions have stronger environmental laws and perform better across multiple environmental indicators. However, environmental issues traverse national boundaries and even localized actions contribute to depleting the global commons on which we all depend. A Global Pact for the Environment is needed to empower environmental defenders, propel key actors to deliver on their climate commitments, and ensure that emissions do not continue to be outsourced nor risks displaced.
The urgency of the crises we face today call for an unprecedented scale of collaboration and speed of creative responses, necessitating an acceleration of open source solutions. “Recover Together, Recover Stronger” entails coming to terms with the grim realities of the lack of coordinated global response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the availability of resources, knowledge, and technologies, wealthy nations and multilateral corporations have deliberately chosen to gatekeep resources and continued to reap short-term benefits for a select few at the expense of detrimental long-term costs for all. The issue is not confined to the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the failures of vaccine-patenting must not be repeated as we respond to the climate crisis. Youth call on the G20 to ensure that all technologies critical for solving global challenges - including climate change adaptation and mitigation, biodiversity loss, and food security - must be open source and open data. An open source approach fulfills the promises of knowledge transfer, and is fundamental to facilitate greater access to research, tools, and data that will be needed to shift our socio-economic systems while keeping costs of adoption low for all countries. Planetary challenges transcend national borders and call for a multilateralism keyed towards the delivery of global public goods. Gatekeeping only works to reverse multilateralism and trust. There should be no copyright reserved for human survival.
Empowering learners of all ages to make informed decisions and take collective and individual action towards a systemic transformation that safeguards the planet remains paramount. Youths of the G20 have reaffirmed Education for Sustainable Development for all - including political and economic leaders - with robust knowledge exchange and capacity building as pre-requisites for joint action on planetary wellbeing. Not only is this important for future generations, it is equally important - if not more - to abridge such knowledge gaps for non-youth decision-makers. Success in our efforts to address the climate and ecological crises depends on various policy actions, all of which hinge on one critical element: mobilizing political will. With any substantial political decision with broad socio-economic implications, accurate information helps mobilize public opinion and to supercharge political will, which begets action.
We cannot Recover Together, Recover Stronger from a pandemic that is inextricably linked to biodiversity loss and ecosystem health if the urgency to safeguard a livable planet dwindles. We cannot scale up collective action without recognizing that environmental damage has immense negative implications for the effective enjoyment of all human rights. We cannot discuss solutions to the climate and ecological crises without recognizing that the challenges we face transcend national borders and that countries must deliver their fair share. For the G20 to strengthen its diplomatic posture and fulfill its duty, it must double down on solving the planetary crisis. Instead of asking whether the current confluence of global chaos affords us the ability to redouble the G20’s focus on climate, ask if we can afford not to.
Jodi-Ann Jue Xuan Wang (Canada), Nashin Mahtani (Indonesia), and Francesco Brusaporco (Italy) are Y20 Delegates to G20 Indonesia 2022
