COY17 to Kick off in Sharm El-Sheikh on Nov. 2

The 17th edition of the UN Climate Change Conference of Youth (COY) will kick off in Egypt's coastal city Sharm El-Sheikh, on November 2.

The event is held on the sidelines of the upcoming 27th session of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) and with the participation of 1,500 young men and women from different countries around the world.

COY17 will run from November 3 to 5 in cooperation with the Ministries of Environment, Youth, and Foreign Affairs.

The event's dialogue sessions will feature an appearance by Minister of Environment Yasmin Fouad, UN Resident Coordinator in Egypt Elina Panova, and UNICEF Representative in Egypt Jeremy Hopkins, Ministries of Sports and Foreign Affairs representatives.

It takes place ahead of the COP event in the same host country as the COP to serve as a space for capacity building and policy training in a bid to prepare young people for their participation in COP.

The COY conference also aims to empower young people and bring their voices to the processes of the UN Framework Convention on climate change to shape intergovernmental climate change policies, according to Ashraf Sobhy, Minister of Youth and Sports.

The first edition of COY was launched in 2005 in Montreal ahead of COP11 to make youth voices heard.

In 2009, during COP15, the UNFCCC secretariat and the member states of the convention officially recognized youth as an observer constituency of its own to represent the formal voice of children and youth in UNFCCC processes.

In 2021, COY16 took place in Glasgow, gathering thousands of young change-makers from more than 140 countries.