Valuing the Voices of Youth and Nature in the Climate Conversation at the UN

The Climate Action Summit during the UN General Assembly in NYC this autumn 2019 was special in that it was fueled by conversations on:

• inter-generational climate solutions,
• nature-based climate solutions, and
• cultural climate solutions from indigenous communities worldwide.

This was the key observation of my guest for this week’s Natural Intelligence Worldwide podcast, Mr. Alfonso de Alba.

Mr de Alba serves as the special envoy for the Climate Action Summit. And, he was the driving force behind the pre- UN Summit discussions, which aimed to voice the concerns, comments, and commitments of the youth, indigenous, and environmental groups with greater volume throughout the summit.

To this end, Mr. Alfonso de Alba felt the Climate Action Summit was quite successful. 

Key outcomes of the meeting included:

• greater attention to inclusivity in driving innovation, technology and finances toward in-country climate actions;
• greater financial commitment to both climate mitigation and climate adaptation; which includes resilience-building for the most vulnerable, developing countries and communities.
• greater attention by the international community to the gravity and urgency of acting on climate; as well; in collaboration; as everyone’s commitment-large or small now matters;
• and finally…. a greater commitment by Secretary General Guiterrez to convert commitments to reality; as well, to assist countries in reaching even higher aspirational climate goals.

Let’s hear what Mr. de Alba has to say about the big wins from the UN Summit this year in New York and our commitment as a global community forward to rapidly decarbonize our world and to keep our global temperature increase to below 1.5C.