FAQs

The Children and Youth Pavilion represents a space at COP for children and young climate champions, professionals, and activists to engage each other, decision-makers, and influential stakeholders in talks, policy briefings and networking activities.

The Pavilion welcomes participants from diverse backgrounds through cross-sectoral collaborations and promotes knowledge exchange. It showcases the competency and drive of children and youth in setting agendas, innovating solutions, and advancing action on climate change. The Pavilion further provides a forum to deliberate on the global climate ambitions and action plans at the heart of the Paris Agreement and Kyoto Protocol.

Ultimately, the Pavilion amplifies the voices of children and youth and drives action on global climate policies vital to securing our future. 

At COP28, the Pavilion will hold in-person and virtual events, meetings, discussions, workshops, and high-level dialogues, and a dedicated media room for interviews and podcasts, as well as a space for creativity, networking, art, music, and spoken word.

The Children and Youth Pavilion Steering Committee (SC) is made up of 21+ youth-led entities and institutions supporting youth engagement and inclusion. The SC has secured the pavilion space, managed the logistics and design of the pavilion layout, curated the programme of the pavilion, set the agenda, and ensured the pavilion represents the values and aims of the youth climate movement. The institutional partners feed into youth plans, guiding and facilitating its development.

The SC had three working groups: Programme, Resource Allocation, and Communications & Media. 

Please find all members of the steering committee here.

• Convene, build solidarity and enhance coordination among diverse youth climate actors, maximise impact throughout COP28, and move the climate agenda forward.
• Promote learning, exchange of ideas and experience, allowing children and youth to reach our full potential.
• Be intergenerational, multi-stakeholder and inclusive with children and youth voices at the centre of programming. 
• Be a space where children and youth engage with experts/decision-makers to facilitate partnerships.
• Be sensitive to protected characteristics, such as age, sexuality, gender, race, religion and disability dynamics. 
• An intersectional approach shows the way that people's social identities can overlap, creating compounding experiences of discrimination.
• Act as a solution catalyst, encouraging cross-sectoral collaborations and engagement, open to participants and organisers from a variety of professional, academic and creative backgrounds and with voices and perspectives we might not always agree with.
• Ensure all regions have adequate representation, time and space to showcase themselves, especially those that are underrepresented and most affected by the climate crisis.
• Focus on intersectional themes of climate change, including gender, health, loss and damage, etc.
• Embrace people’s diversity, differences and life experiences.
• Ensure fair distribution of opportunities, allowing all youth voices to be equal.

We have gone through the same processes as any other pavilion participating at COP28. Our Pavilion was subject to the same costs as other pavilions, but as the youth presence is so important, the Presidency has subsidised our construction costs.

The Children and Youth Pavilion organisers are made up of a core team of volunteers from each of the youth partners. 

Youth-washing is a problem that is present in the climate movement. We are here at COP28 to be seen and heard. This is our opportunity for the youth to come together in the Blue Zone with our own Pavilion. We will not stand for youth-washing. We are present and here to ensure that the youth voices are heard by world leaders and policymakers. We must be taken seriously as this is our future. We want to see strong climate action and campaign for climate justice.