In celebration of the INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLES on August 9th – which celebrated its 30th anniversary this year – the second GLOBAL INDIGENOUS YOUTH SUMMIT ON CLIMATE CHANGE (GIYSCC) was hosted by Future Earth in 2024. Again coordinated by the Science Diplomacy Center™, this “virtual dialogue by, for and among Indigenous youth with global inclusion” builds on the 2023 legacy of being hosted first by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).
The global lead for GIYSCC-2024, Dr. Devina Lobine from Mauritius, is as a Global Young Academy scholar, who contributed as an awardee with the Science Advice Skills Development Program (SASDP), which was initiated in 2023 by the International Network for Government Science Advice (INGSA) – Africa. The SASDP mentee-mentor initiative also engaged the global lead with GIYSCC-2023, Dr. Temitope Sogbanmu from Nigeria, involving Prof. Paul Arthur Berkman as fortunate mentor in both years.
The were 35 GIYSCC-2024 Indigenous Youth Leaders across three 8-hour time zones from Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America, including the Arctic and Oceania, who were the decisionmakers about the three regional agendas and invitees with their shared global dialogue, circling the Earth with the Sun across 24 hours (00:00-24:00 GMT). Nine of the original 13 GIYSCC-2023 Indigenous Youth Leaders contributed this second year. The three 8-hour YouTube videos with GIYSCC-2024 are available on the Future Earth channel for: Region 1, Region 2 and Region 3.
GIYSCC-2024 involved 800+ registrants from 100+ nations across nearly 240 languages with partners around the world, building on the contributions with GIYSCC-2023, which involved over 1300 registrants representing 112+ nations and communicating in 88+ languages.
As a legacy – building a Global Partnership of Indigenous Youth in the spirit of SDG 17 among the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, as introduced with their 2023 invited Nature Commentary that Indigenous Youth Must Be at the Forefront of Climate Diplomacy – GIYSCC Global Indigenous Youth Leaders are inviting chapter contributions in an anticipated volume to be published in the Springer book series on Informed Decisionmaking for Sustainability.
