She delivered this statement on behalf of the Children and Youth Constituency, as the voice of children and youth worldwide, and the voices closest to future generations not yet here, calling for a full, fast and fair fossil phase-out, to usher in an era of climate justice, reparations, and action.
“These negotiations aren't just about today’s politics. They are about your legacy and our future. It is about the air, the forests, oceans, the food, and clean water, from the Congo Basin to the Amazon Rainforest. We share our gratitude to the people of Amazonia that have stewarded these lands and fought back, and we stand with them as we continue to fight within these halls”. She told world leaders during the official opening of COP30.
The Gambia L-COY Coordinator called for an adaptation package that adopts a full list of child and youth sensitive-indicators accompanied by a new Adaptation Finance commitment of tripling the Glasgow Pledge that is ambitious, grant-based, and responsive to the needs of developing countries.
Calling for principles to be operationalised by just transitional mechanisms, Kaddijatou added that “We demand that COP30 operationalizes the UAE Dialogue to focusing on international cooperation around implementation and finalizing the GST-2 modalities at COP30 in line with what was agreed in Dubai. We call on parties to adopt an ambitious just transition package consisting of joint just transition principles including labour and human rights, FPIC, intergenerational equity, international cooperation grounded in Common But Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC).
According to the L-Coy boss, they are also calling for a creation of a Nature Work Programme in the COP30 to cover operationalising Article 5 and ensuring nature considerations are embedded into Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) for a Joint Work Programme across Rio Conventions.
“Now that we’ve reached three decades of COP, which fossil fuel lobbyists continue to attend, we call for a Conflicts of Interest policy within the UNFCCC that supports accountability against the influence of corporate and state actors.” Kaddijatou posited, adding that Science must be centered to safeguard equity and protect communities, which means rejecting false solutions and embedding carbon budgets and adaptation limits directly into negotiating texts.
She urged Parties to join the NDC Youth Clause Coalition, a call to action for intergenerational collaboration for implementing climate action in NDCs and response plans.
In conclusion, they called for an immediate global ceasefire and a halt to all armed conflicts, asserting that all civilians, especially children, youth and other vulnerable communities, must always be protected from the impacts of conflict and crisis. Because there can be no peace without justice, there can be no climate justice without human rights.
