EESC Youth Delegate to COP – Diandra's end of mandate report

Diandra Ní Bhuachalla has been the European Economic and Social Committee's (EESC's) youth delegate to COP for the 2023-2024 mandate. She participated in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP28 and COP29 as an active member of the EESC's delegation and contributed to the work of the EESC's Ad Hoc Group (AHG) on COP.

Have you felt sufficiently involved in the work of the EESC's Ad Hoc Group and in the missions to the COPs?

It was brilliant to experience how integrated the youth delegate's role is within the AHG on COP. The encouragement from, and interest of, the other members of the group in hearing youth perspectives was always heart-warming. The President of the EESC Section for Agriculture, Rural Development and the Environment (NAT) always ensured that everyone in the group had an opportunity to speak, should they wish to. Moreover I was specifically welcomed by name at the beginning of the sessions and this made me feel particularly included and at home.

Regarding the missions to the COPs, it took me some time to figure out the impact that I could have, as a young person and as part of civil society. As Irelands United Nations Youth Delegate 2021-22, I was (so lucky to be) used to being able to follow/contribute to negotiations, but youth inclusion within that space at the COP is very limited. I also thought that we might be more included in meetings of the EU Delegation, so finding out that we only had one debrief with the Commissioner concerned was disappointing. However, I also discovered that there are different sorts of reasons why people attend the COPs - for negotiations, side-events, networking, social media, etc. This really helped me understand my role, and that of the EESC, more broadly in the UNFCCC process, and helped me to have a greater impact in my messaging, especially at COP29 I believe.

Did you feel connected with other young people during your mandate?

The Youth Task Force meetings are an integral part of the programme, and they are the main way that I was connected to other young people during my mandate. I felt most prepared to contribute to the meetings of the AHG on COP, especially on particular subject matters, when we held a Youth Task Force meeting on the same topic beforehand. For example, when the meetings focused on topics (such as mitigation and finance) that I wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about, and if we didn’t have a youth speaker as part of the thematic debate, that – for me – was when the true value of the Youth Task Force meetings shone through. This is why I think that it would be brilliant to include other youth organisations in the Youth Task Force on a more structured basis, along with the European Youth Forum (YFJ) and Generation Climate Europe (GCE).

Also, given that the EESC attends the COP to represent the interests of people living not only in Europe but also around the world, I think it would be great to engage with youth organisations from the Global South periodically during the year, to hear directly about their experiences and how the role could amplify their voices.

Finally, if I had had more time to devote to the programme, I think I would have leveraged social media to bring more youth voices to the AHG meetings, in addition to those heard during the Youth Task Force meetings.

To what extent are young people meaningfully involved in the UNFCCC process?

There are many issues, which have been widely documented, surrounding accreditation, visas, funding, badge allocation and so much more, which prevent young people from attending and engaging in the COP, never mind being included in its processes. Small changes are beginning to happen, and that is so great to see. I just hope that once these issues are eventually addressed, we will also have reached a point where our decision-makers aren’t afraid to speak to us openly – I'm referring to the meeting scheduled with the Commissioner, where youth organisations were required to send questions in advance and hold a pre-meeting to decide which of those questions would be asked.

What do you think is the added value of the EESC's Youth Delegate to COP programme for youth organisations and for the EESC?

For youth organisations, I think that engagement with the EESC and other EU institutions during the COP is a great way to build connections and also to gain a better understanding of the work/impact of the EU in the UNFCCC process. Seeing how it works in practice can allow them to make a more direct, coordinated, and intentional impact in each subsequent COP. More broadly, I think that including a Youth Delegate allows the EESC to cover more ground at the COP. While my interactions at the side-events that I attended were largely based on my own experience and interests, there were also others where I was able to learn and engage with stakeholders who were important to the EESC. Including a Youth Delegate also allows the EESC to gain a different perspective, because even if different members of the delegation attend the same event or bilateral meeting, we might have completely different takeaways from it.