Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi Launches its Youth COP
8 May, 2023Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi launched the SUAD Youth COP in an online webinar that brought together over 700 registered participants from 85 countries and a panel of climate leaders from the North and South, who play a key role in their respective countries. In her opening remarks, Her Excellency Reem Ebrahim Al Hashimy, Minister of State for International Cooperation in the UAE and Chairwoman of the University Board of Trustees talked of the importance of empowering the youth and the role they will play in the global transformation. She reiterated the commitment of the UAE to COP28 and to the inclusion of youth in the process, with the appointment of the Minister of Community Development HE Shamma Al Mazrui as the COP28 Youth Climate Champion. She ended her remarks by praising academic universities such as Paris Cité University in France and Universidade Federal do Ceará in Brazil and encourages them to continue to engage in climate discussions.
Professor Silvia Serrano, Vice-Chancellor Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi welcomed the participants to the event which is being held in collaboration with Université Paris-Cité (France), Universidade Federal Do Cerea (Brazil) and the YOUNGO, the official youth constituency of the UNFCCC. Professor Serrano highlighted that as a transnational Emirati French higher education institution, Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi is in a key position to encourage students and the youth across the globe to engage in the dialogue to realise the goals of the Paris COP21Agreement taking place later this year in the UAE, as the bridge between France and the UAE.
Other key speakers included His Excellency the European Union Ambassador to Brazil, Mr Ignacio Ibanez, Her Excellency Juliana Alves, Secretary of State for Indigenous People in Ceará, Brazil; Ms Sabra Noordeen, Special Envoy for Climate Change in Maldives; Mr Yao Marcel, Senior Advisor of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of Ivory Coast; Mr Jay Shah, contact point of Adaptation Working Group at YOUNGO/UNFCCC; and Ms Eduarda Zoghbi, Senior Advisor to Student Energy. These spoke of the importance of this event and the role students and future generations have to play in the fight against climate change. Panelists underlined the importance of supporting those regions, in particular the Global South, that are most affected by the climate change phenomena which for many has now become a reality.
SUAD Youth COP is one of the initiatives organized by Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi as part of its Go Green 2023 and in alignment with the UAE Year of Sustainability and the upcoming COP28.
The Youth COP has been developed to allow students from around the world to engage in the COP28 discussions through a simulation of mock negotiations where students will prepare an ambitious and comprehensive document to tackle the pressing topics around the ocean, loss and damage mechanisms and energy transition. 25 teams (75 students) will collaborate in an enriching, immersive negotiation event on climate-related topics. The selected students will develop a joint document that will become a “Call to Action from Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi to Future Generations” which will be presented at COP28 by the two winning teams.
Registrations are now open until June 8, 2023. Interested students can register by visiting: https://gogreen.sorbonne.ae/activities/suad-youth-cop-march-december-2023/