The first National Youth Assembly on Climate took place online on the 2nd March 2022, hosted by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) and the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) in partnership with the National Participation Office. The Assembly consisted of a diverse group of 35 young people, aged 12 – 24 years from across Ireland. Young delegates to the Assembly came from Comhairle na nÓg (youth councils), youth organisations and climate organisations. The Assembly’s recommendations are being considered by Government inclusion in the Climate Action Plan 2023.
The National Youth Assembly on Climate 2022 was opened by the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Roderic O’Gorman, who welcomed the young delegates to the Assembly and emphasised the Government’s commitment to listening to children’s and young people’s views.
During the day, delegates took part in a series of activities and discussed the climate areas of greatest concern to young people. They agreed on four key priority areas to make recommendations for the Climate Action Plan 2023. These were:
- Community Engagement,
- Transport,
- Just Transition, and
- Government Goals and Policies.
Eight recommendations under the priority areas were presented to Eamon Ryan, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and Minister for Transport who engaged actively in an open discussion with delegates about these recommendations.
Recommendations include:
- Encourage cycling through initiatives which make it cheaper and safer. Such as safer bike lanes and bikes to school initiatives.
- Improve public transport and make it more affordable, accessible and reliable. Increase public transport at bust times to reduce overcrowding.
- Make electric cars more affordable and increase charging points to make them more user friendly.
- Introduce education for farmers to enable them to move towards more sustainable agriculture. This could help lower methane gas and CO2 emissions.
- Introduce mandatory standard of eco labelling in food and clothes products. Allow consumers to vote with their wallet.
- Improve the affordability of transition to making better climate choices for low income families in regard to fuel and transport choices for example.
- Support the vote for 16 year olds to enable more input from younger citizens.
- Create community engagement platforms for bottom-up engagement. This would promote greater active citizenship. Extend workshops to workplaces and schools for greater engagement.
View the Assembly Recommendations Poster here.
In November 2022, the Report of the National Youth Assembly on Climate 2022 was published. This provides a detailed record of the Assembly discussions, captures the views of young people from across Ireland and reflects the concerns of young people in relation to climate issues.
The report presents the National Youth Assembly on Climate’s recommendations for consideration to include in Ireland’s Climate Action Plan 2023.
The key recommendations from the Youth Assembly relate to the areas of transport, just transition, agriculture, circular economy and communication.
In addition to delegates being provided information packs in advance of the Assembly, they are given an opportunity to attend an online preparation session for delegates to get to know each other, to hear from invited speakers and climate experts, and to prepare for making recommendations to Government.
Delegates heard from DECC Officials and invited speakers including two climate scientists Professor John Sweeney (NUI Maynooth), Dr Cara Augustenborg (UCD) and two young climate activists Treasa Cadogan the UN Delegate for Ireland and Finlay Thomson a member of Foróige’s eCollective.
Workshops provided opportunities for delegates to develop their capacity to construct actionable recommendations to be considered by Government. Delegates also have the opportunity to get clarity from policy makers by putting forward written questions to DECC in advance of the Assembly.