December 2022 - Coming out of COP27, the advancement of indigenous-developed strategies and proposals is fundamental to guarantee irreversible progress in climate change. Around 250 indigenous peoples’ representatives from across the globe attended COP27. The aim was to foster direct communications with world leaders and the international community to tackle destructive commodity production and government-led interventions that are putting the future of their communities at risk. 

The breadth of challenges posed by climate change at local-to-global levels is a multilateral concern across the spectrum of subnational-national-international jurisdictions. At the same time, rapidly changing climatic conditions have increased levels of uncertainty and anxiety among the youth on Earth. Youth, and especially Indigenous youth, have key roles to enhance multilateral cooperation on climate action, helping humanity to operate for the benefit of all on Earth across generations.

In light of the United Nations International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, UNITAR will host the Global Indigenous Youth Summit on Climate Change (GIYSCC). The Summit is being convened by, for, and among Indigenous youth, who will participate in designing the agenda and invite the participants from three 8-hour time zones, in a 24-hour period, on 9 August 2023. In a complementary context, the Summit will precede the United Nations International Youth Day on August 12th.