BAKU, Azerbaijan — Young people who attend the United Nations climate talks have a lot to be angry about. They've lost loved ones and months of school. They've lost homes and family farms and connections to their families' native lands.
They haven't lost hope, though. Not yet. "It has become so tiring for me to be just a poster child," said Marinel Ubaldo, who by age 16 had watched two back-to-back supersized typhoons destroy entire communities in her native Philippines.
Missing a chunk of high school in the aftermath, because there was no school to go back to, was a wake-up call. Now 27, COP29 will be her sixth time attending the summit where leaders negotiate the future she will inherit. "I guess I'm very pessimistic, but I'm going to be positive that this COP could actually bring more clarity," she said.
Her pessimism isn't unwarranted. Fewer leaders were in attendance this year, with a backdrop of uncertainty as political will on climate unravels in major countries like the U.S.
and Germany. While many passionate youth want to protest, this will be the third straight COP in an authoritarian country with tighter controls on protests and speech. And for many of the young people hardest hit by climate extremes, it's simply difficult and expensive to get to the conference.
"We have this constant challenge of having sometimes the youth forums with spaces at the margins of the decision maker spaces," said Felipe Paullier, assistant secretary general for youth affairs in the U.
