The 2nd South Asian Youth Summit on Climate Change will be organized Colombo, Sri Lanka. The South Asian Youth Summit on Climate Change (SAYSoCC) is a platform that aims to bring together young people from across South Asia in contributing all that they can to the collective global effort to redress the climate crisis and environmental degradation. SAYSoCC is a joint-project of the South Asian Youth Climate Movement (SAYCM), which is a consortium of youth-driven organizations in South Asia that work to address climate change and other environmental issues in the region. Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka are the eight nations that will be working on this endeavor.
Building on the success of last year’s Summit in Dulikhel, Nepal, which dealt with topics such as sustainable development in South Asia, regional cooperation and local climate issues, this year’s Summit in Sri Lanka will incorporate the idea of capacity building of the youth and grassroots organizations in South Asia. Furthermore, we will also explore such themes as adaptation, biodiversity in South Asia, regional actions and the role of the youth in climate negotiations, among others and the overall theme of the summit is SustainABILITY. It will be a five-day long Summit, comprising of workshops, lectures, plenary sessions, roundtable discussions, action projects, and cultural events. However, the most important aspect of the Summit will the opportunity it will provide to the participants to forge into relationships that will permit collective and collaborative thinking and action on climate change in South Asia.
Goals and Objectives:
- To form a regional platform for young people to initiate collective actions;
- To educate and empower young people to take actions against climate change;
- To facilitate exchange of ideas and sharing of techniques and practices on climate change that are carried by youth groups of South Asia;
- To encourage and facilitate youth participation from South Asia in climate negotiations, leading up to COP16/CMP6 in Cancun, Mexico.
The applications are open to youth from all South Asian countries between the age group of 16-29. The application form can be downloaded here. The deadline for the application is August 10th '10.