SilverLining x YOUNGO TechMech Working Group Safe Climate Youth Summit 24_june_2021
SilverLining invites you to join a summit on your future.
SAFE CLIMATE YOUTH SUMMIT - VIRTUAL EVENT 24 JUNE 2021, 16:00-20:00 CEST
As climate impacts grow, stakeholders around the world are beginning to consider possibilities for climate interventions—technological approaches to rapidly reducing warming or greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (sometimes called “geoengineering”)— as possibilities for keeping people safe and natural systems stable while society transitions to a sustainable future.
All too frequently, climate intervention is discussed among people who will not live to see the worst impacts of climate change. We are yet to have a platform where the experiences of young people, facing these threats now and for the rest of their lives, are placed at the centre of this conversation. This event aims to start an official dialogue among youth and between younger and older generations, to establish a tangible youth contribution to the field and help put young people at the forefront of future developments in climate intervention research and policy.
Our event will feature:
16:00 CEST: Introduction from our hosts
16:05 CEST: Session 1 - Near-Term Climate Threats: Young People’s Realities
During this opening session, youth climate leaders will give insight into the near-term climate threats they are experiencing in their respective parts of the world. This will help contextualise the problems that climate intervention aims to address, and set the stage for the rest of the summit. It will feature a short video by climate scientist Will Steffen.
16:40 CEST Session 2 - “What is Climate Intervention?” - A Discussion with Researchers
This session will delve into the realities of climate intervention science, focusing on the most rapid proposed form of intervention - increasing the reflection on sunlight from the atmosphere. The session will include two Q&As with researchers where the co-hosts and young attendees will have the chance to directly ask about their work.
17:15 CEST Session 3 - Youth & Intergenerational Dialogues on Climate Intervention
Session 3 will connect the dots between climate intervention research and young people. There will be an intergenerational discussion between young and older climate and policy experts which seeks to shed light on the issue of climate intervention vis-à-vis intergenerational justice. At the end of this session, there will be another Q&A, which will provide opportunities for a panel of young people to reflect and react to the contents of the summit thus far, giving space for more diverse perspectives to be heard.
18:00 CEST Session 4 - Youth Call to Action on Climate Intervention
Inspired by the Global Center on Adaptation’s Global Youth Call to Action on Adaptation, attendees are invited to develop a 1-2 page Youth Call to Action on Climate Intervention. Recommendations from the youth perspective will be formulated in breakout groups, where they will discuss a set of policy questions. In the closing part of this session, the groups will come together to share their ideas and receive feedback on from experts and policymakers. The resulting policy document will subsequently be presented at COP26 in Glasgow as a point of discussion - the first time there will be an official youth position on climate intervention represented at a COP, marking a significant step forward for youth participation in international policy in this arena.
Event Co-Hosts
Joshua Amponsem - Executive Director, Green Africa Youth Organization/Youth Fellow, Global Center on Adaptation (Ghana)
Béatrice Coroenne - Contact Point, YOUNGO TechMech Working Group (France)
Madeleine Karlsberg Schaffer - Research Fellow, SilverLining (UK)
Speakers and Panelists
Kalo Afeaki- Coordinator, 350 Pacific Climate Warriors, Wellington (Tonga)
Ko Barrett- Vice Chair, IPCC/Deputy Administrator for Research, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (US)
Angela Busheska - Founder & CEO, EnRoute (North Macedonia)
Sarah Doherty - Program Director, Marine Cloud Brightening Project & Atmospheric Scientist, University of Washington (US)
Gideon Futerman - Youth Activist (UK)
Olfa Jelassi - Board and Steering Committee Member, GenderCC (Tunisia)
Julius Mbatia - Coordinator, Youth for SDGs Kenya/Policy & Advocacy Officer, Power Shift Africa (Kenya)
Kate Murphy - Engineering Lead, Marine Cloud Brightening Project & Researcher, Palo Alto Research Center (US)
Neeshad Shafi - Executive Director, Arab Youth Climate Movement (Qatar)
Ricardo Pineda - Director & Co-founder, Sustenta Honduras (Honduras)
Marcos Regis da Silva - Executive Director, Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (Ecuador)
Will Steffan - Institute for Climate, Energy and Natural Disaster Solutions (Australia)
Kelly Wanser - Executive Director, SilverLining (US)
Adrian Watson - Jamaica Environment Entrepreneurs' Advocacy Network/Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (Jamaica)
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Global warming has reached new records with risks of catastrophic changes within a decade or two. The international response to climate change has been and may continue to be inadequate to ensure a safe global climate.
Even under the best projections for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the climate is projected to warm to over 2 degrees above the pre-industrial baseline - with devastating impacts on vulnerable people and vulnerable parts of the world. Rapidly reducing carbon emissions must remain our highest priority. However, there is increased interest in exploring various forms of climate intervention, including the potential use of rapid interventions such as increasing the reflection of sunlight from the atmosphere—solar climate intervention (SCI) (sometimes called “geoengineering”) to avoid dangerous or abrupt climate change.
Scientific assessments have suggested that by increasing the reflectivity of the atmosphere by just 1%, it might be possible to offset the energy equivalent of several degrees of warming globally. Because this is believed to be one of the few ways to cool the climate quickly, it could play a particularly important role in addressing climate tipping points, where rapid action could be required.
Any interventions would have to be implemented as safely as possible, which raises issues about how these technologies should be assessed, discussed, and governed. International decision-making on near-term climate risks and interventions requires the participation of those most affected - people from vulnerable communities and the world’s youth.
Photographs courtesy of Christopher Michel. Technical production by SFG Productions.