Ina Skosana

Teens from across Africa are to come together for the Tunza Generation Earth Summit and pre-COP discussions in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

Meeting at Gold Reef City, 45 delegates from 20 countries will tackle, negotiate and put down plans for sustainable development which will go towards a statement to be put forward at COP17.

COP17 is the 17th session of the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, that will be hosted in Durban from Monday.

The summit is the follow up to the inaugural Generation Earth Summit on climate change that was hosted in Joburg last month.

The conference is funded by the UN Environmental Programme (Unep) Bayer Partnership for Youth and Environment, and will bring together 25 regional and 20 local participants.

Delegates come from as far as Togo, Egypt and Mauritania. Included in the summit will be members from the Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar.

Generation Earth founder Ella Bella said: “It is my goal for the youth to take up the challenge that climate change poses – to engage and set the Earth’s rehabilitation in motion. The summit provides a platform of open forum debate and interaction between leaders in the fields of water, energy, biodiversity, African climate change and climate adaptation issues.”

The Tunza programme aims to come up with plans that put young people in the centre of their own plans to save the environment.

Generation Earth has partnered with Unep, Tunza and the SA Department of Environmental Affairs with an official endorsement by Minister Edna Molewa.

Apart from drafting a youth statement that will go to COP17, today’s summit will provide a road map to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development that will be hosted in Brazil next year.

inas@thenewage.co.za