YOUTH DIALOGUE ACROSS AND BEYOND THE G7 Hannah Schartmann & Felix Kaminski The Youth7’s Track on Sustainable & Green Planet brought forth policy proposals that help main- tain the liveability of the planet we inherited. This requires both courageous commitments that are in line with a sustainable future and the actual imple- mentation of the decisions made. In this article, we would like to share key insights into how they perceived the work in the track and the demands
Making the climate club meaningful
In their recommendations, the Delegates also championed Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s goal to create an international Climate Club, which would promote further cooperation between coun- tries. Delegates call upon G7 leaders to follow up and establish a Climate Club by the end of 2022. The climate ambition gap must be closed by strengthening global commitments to reach the 1.5°C target and by setting a carbon price floor at an adjusted level where high-income coun- tries must take on the onus and step up their efforts. The Climate Club must include interna- tional revenue recycling and avoid carbon leakage, e.g., by avoiding exemptions for carbon-intensive industries. The G7 must use COP27 to move ahead beyond expressions of regret that neither global ambition nor implementation is sufficient to reach the 1.5°C target. Immediate action is needed to drastically reduce global greenhouse gas emis- sions and to mitigate the impact of the climate crisis. More specifically, the Delegates demand to make no further investments in new fossil fuel proj- ects and redirect funding to renewable energy to ensure a universal and affordable energy supply. Track 1 was dedicated to address the existing interdependence between the climate crisis, biodiversity degeneration, global conflicts, and insufficient efforts to implement the SDGs, calling for holistic approaches.
formulated by the Delegates. A shared vision for a better future
The Youth7 is, like the G7, a forum where people with different perspectives, shaped by their own national circumstances from all over the world, come together. Besides the Delegates from G7 members, Delegates from partner countries, namely Indo- nesia, Senegal, South Africa and Ukraine, attended the Youth7 Summit in Berlin in May 2022. Irrespec- tive of these different national circumstances, the Delegates were united in their goals: maintaining the liveability of the planet we inherited, fighting the global climate crisis, and stepping up ambi- tions to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. 12 young environmentalists debated and agreed on nine ambitious environmental policy recom- mendations to include in the Communiqué. These covered a variety of topics, including biodiversity recovery, climate finance, and just energy transition. The Delegates discussed tirelessly and beyond the official time reserved for working sessions. This was not because opinions diverged that significantly but because the Delegates were so keen to hear all perspectives from both developed and developing economies in the unique setting of the Youth7 and to find the best wording to use the limited space in the communiqué as efficiently as possible.
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