On September 18th, 2017, 25 participants joined Climate Change, Migration and Me, a youth-driven initiative, led by the Netherlands National IHP-HWRP Committee, on climate change and migration issues. The prizes were a chance to participate in the UN Climate Conference (COP23) in Bonn or a chance to join the Planetary Security Conference, 2017, in The Hague.
With their piece “Zika in paradise: Climate change, Migration and disease” Karin Bremer, Leslie Ford, Maya Velis and Marieke Hagg won the youth challenge and attended the COP23.
The second prize, which earned them a participation to the 3rd Planetary Security Conference, in The Hague, went to Elisa Perpignan, Derrick Agyapong, Rollis Jiofack, Oluwasegun Seriki for their piece: “European Pact for Water”.
The results can be found here.
After putting their hearts into this project on environmental security, the participants have realized that the part forward is on joining other dynamic and determined young people who think about solutions for climate-related security problems and who believe that it is an urgent issue that needs to be addressed. The youths, as the agent of change, are crucial to enshrine water security as a key goal for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and to elaborate on future solutions for future generations.
This project, led by the Netherlands National IHP-HWRP Committee, invited highly motivated youths to join one of the five cases prepared by Dutch organizations and experts: (1) The Syrian migrant crisis and the role of the environment; (2) The valuing of water and its incidence on mass migrations; (3) The potentiality of flood predictions; (4) the European citizen’s awareness on climate change & water security; (5) the Zika virus, climate change, migration and disease. As a whole, the challenges were part of a will to increase political attention for water by means of connecting it with the current global challenges of climate change and migrations issues. Indeed, as recognized by the United Nations as well as the Dutch Government, the relationships between climate change, water security and migration is a complex, yet, a crucial issue with impacts that can be traced to the larger picture of conflicts, violence, fragility and social turmoil.