Hong Kong youth climate advocates are taking things in their hands

The COP27 Children and Youth Pavilion, where a bilateral meeting was held between the Youth Climate Movement (YOUNGO) and the European Commission. (Ryan Yip Yuk Long)

It’s inevitable that 2022 will be remembered as the year of climate breakdown, with some of the costliest extreme weather disasters around the globe, made more intense and frequent by the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The devastating floods in Pakistan, the summer heatwave in Europe, the drought in Brazil and China, and the destruction caused by Hurricane Ian in the United States and Cuba are just some examples of the pervasive and adverse impacts of the climate crisis. In Hong Kong (HK), climate change means a further increase in temperatures, more rain that will increase the risk of landslide and flooding, as well as mean sea level rise by about 0.98 m by the end of the 21st century (Cheng 2020). The world needs joint and immediate action in order to alleviate the consequences of climate change in the future.

A combined 197 nations and territories, Heads of States, ministers and negotiators, along with climate activists, mayors, civil society representatives and CEOs have signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). These parties meet every year for the largest annual gathering on climate action to discuss challenges and come up with solutions for climate change. The Egyptian coastal city, Sharm El-Sheikh, was the host of the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) that took place from November 6th to 20th in 2022.

The youth of HK was represented at COP27 by a youth delegation shortlisted by the HK-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) CarbonCare InnoLab (CCIL). The youngest delegate in the group was Ryan Yip Yuk Long, a 22-year-old who is a recent graduate from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science. Currently, he is working as a Junior Research Assistant at his alma mater, focusing on research projects pertinent to ocean biogeochemical dynamics and anthropogenic impacts on seawater quality.

I met Ryan when I was attending a session of the Youth Dialogue on Climate Change organized in August 2022, when he was preparing for COP27. The aim of the dialogue sessions was to provide a platform for local youth to discuss emergent topics related to climate change such as renewable energy, youth engagement, and climate finance. Their opinions were included in the position papers, which were also submitted to YOUNGO under UNFCCC as part of the global youth climate positioning at the 17th United Nations Conference of Youth and COP27.

As an avid climate advocate, Ryan has worked closely with local green groups and international organizations such as World Wide Fund for Nature Hong Kong (WWF-HK), The Green Earth, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network Youth (SDSN Youth). He was also featured in a local environmental documentary “Ocean Plastic Clean-Up Trainee”. Volunteering as a trainee for the charity PADI AWARE, he underwent scuba diving training to participate in a dive "A Dive Against Debris" – a program where divers help collect critical marine data for researchers and conservation efforts. Afterwards, he interviewed various local academic experts and marine cleanup activists to investigate the seriousness of marine debris in HK. 

“This [climate activism] is all thanks to the Climate Advocacy Training for Youth (CATY) program organized by a local NGO named CarbonCare InnoLab (CCIL)” explains Ryan. He joined as a participant in the second cohort from November 2021 to March 2022, underwent modules ranging from the introduction of climate advocacy, and stakeholder engagement, to social media campaigning and was selected as an outstanding graduate to be part of the HK Youth Delegation.

Ryan believes that having “HK youth attend COP in person enables them to understand the contentious topics of climate change (e.g. the most anticipated topics of COP27 - Loss and Damage, Finance), and have first-hand experience of international climate negotiations.” The youth attending is even more important because the HK government officials were absent from the COP meetings in the past few years. The last COP the government attended was in Bonn, Germany in 2017 (Hutton 2022). The lack of HK government officials attending COP27 this year has raised concern if climate change remains to be their priority. As a local youth climate advocate, Ryan believes “it is paramount to call government officials for more immediate and ambitious climate action. Even though Hong Kong is not an official party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the HKSAR government has set its own target of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 in accordance with Hong Kong’s Climate Action Plan 2050. “By attending COP27, we hope to motivate international leaders and the Hong Kong government to adopt more ambitious and firm climate actions in order to accomplish the established targets,” concludes Ryan.

Recent COP achievements

One of the major achievements of COP27 is the establishment of the “Loss and Damage” Fund. The aim of this fund is for developed nations to provide financial support to assist developing countries in tackling economic and non-economic damages contributed by climate-induced events. 

Another big achievement for the environment was achieved at another COP that took place in 2022, presided over by China's Minister of Ecology and Environment. COP15, related but not to be confused with COP27, is the UN Biodiversity Conference that took place in Montreal, Canada from 7 to 19 December 2022. This meeting was concluded with the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) that aims to address biodiversity loss, restore ecosystems and protect indigenous rights The plan includes concrete measures to halt and reverse nature loss, including putting 30 percent of the planet and 30 percent of degraded ecosystems under protection by 2030. It also contains proposals to increase finance to developing countries (UNEP 2022).

Despite these big achievements, the struggle for climate justice and environmental protection is not over yet. COP28 is scheduled for December 2023 in Dubai, UAE and it should hopefully continue the discussion started at COP27. Thus, it is of utmost importance that “youth delegates can relay their global youth's voices and collaborative climate action back to the local perspective, hence driving more Hong Kong youth to take part in climate action,” stresses Ryan.