Throughout the two weeks of COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, the Commonwealth Secretariat provided a platform and meeting place for young people. Several side events included young people from across the Commonwealth’s 56 member countries, and they took the opportunity to raise concerns, discuss ideas and share successes.
At COP29, the Commonwealth Youth Programme also organised an intergenerational dialogue that featured youth leaders and discussed youth-focused issues.
Ongoing collaboration with UNCTAD
The side event, held in collaboration with UN Trade & Development (UNCTAD), brought together experts and youth leaders who discussed ways to strengthen the green economy to drive youth employment and sustainability for climate action.
The session highlighted that the transition to a green economy should not be a distant ideal but a practical, tangible path to creating millions of new jobs for young people and fostering sustainable and inclusive growth.
During the event, Nan Li Collins, UNCTAD's Director of the Division on Investment and Enterprise, said that young entrepreneurs face heightened challenges in green ventures, including limited access to finance and technology, compliance costs, and challenges accessing green value chains.
The Commonwealth Secretary-General, The Rt Hon Patricia Scotland KC, also shared:
“We face the dual challenges of climate change and global inequality, and it is clearer than ever that the swift and just transition to a green economy is our best way forward.
“The Commonwealth Secretary has a history of successful partnership with UNCTAD. Together, we launched the youth entrepreneurship guide, and we will soon start the process of updating this guide to include new chapters on the green economy to expand youth employment and entrepreneurship across our member states.”
The panel also emphasised the environmental degradation of key green economy sectors, like farming, that directly affect employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for young people. It also negatively affects the role young people can play in strengthening the transition to the green economy.
Dialogue with youth leaders
This event was very timely, as several young people, including graduates of the Commonwealth Youth Climate Negotiations Training Programme, held in partnership with the Government of Australia, were negotiating on behalf of their regions in the main meeting rooms of COP29. During the event, they were able to share their experiences and reflections.
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Jervon Sands from The Bahamas attended the training programme in September. He shared that the negotiations were tough and that the hours were long. He said:
“The negotiations training was very important. The facilitators prepared us for this; we worked long hours and went round and round the issues and had simulated mock negotiations. It was exactly like what we are encountering at COP29, and we were better prepared for it.”
Nafesha Richardson from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is Chairperson of the Climate Change Committee and serves on the Prime Ministerial Youth Advisory Council. She is a former coordinator of the Commonwealth Youth and Gender Equality Network (CYGEN).
She paid tribute to the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Rt Hon Patricia Scotland KC, and in an emotional address, shared that “at 22, no other organisation invested in me”.
She continued:
“Seeing you, Madam Secretary, a Caribbean woman like me and a lawyer like me, leading with conviction, inspired me to believe I had a place at the table.”
For over five decades, the Commonwealth Youth Programme has focused on empowering and enriching the lives of the 1.5 billion young people across our 56 member states.
Media contact
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Suné Kitshoff Senior Communications Officer, Communications Division, Commonwealth Secretariat
- M: +44 7740 450 901 | E-mail
