This BRS COPs Side Event was organized by AKO Foundation, IPEN, Young volunteers for the Environment, Center for international environmental law, with logistical support from the Geneva Environment Network. This session discussed enabling young people’s active participation in the National Implementation Plan and Strategies of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm (BRS) Conventions for sustainable development.

According to the UN Global Youth Report, the active engagement of youth in sustainable development efforts is central to achieving sustainable, inclusive and stable societies, and to averting the worst threats and challenges to sustainable development, including the impacts of climate change, nature environment and pollution, gender inequality, conflict, and migration.

The United Nations system-wide Youth Strategy, Youth2030, was launched with the firm conviction that young people in all their diversity need to be full-fledged partners in the work of the United Nations and in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Critical to the success of the 2030 Agenda are the role of young people in engaging with local and national government in delivering on policies and programmes on the ground.

Therefore, national, and regional efforts are needed to create environments conducive to youth participation, engagement and development via education, health, employment and reduced exposure to negative activities.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Accra, Ghana

04/02/2022

NEW DATES: The 4^th African Youth SDGs Summit.

The Secretariat of the African Youth SDGs Summit announces a new date for the 4^th African Youth SDGs Summit following the postponement of the event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 4^th African Youth SDGs Summit will take place on 09-11 March 2022, at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia under the theme “Youth Resilience in the Covid-19 era; Pathways to accelerate actions to achieve the SDGs”.

The central objective of the summit is to promote multi-stakeholder engagement among the youth and also draw commitments and high-level support from different stakeholders including UN Member States, civil society and the private sector towards active youth participation in the implementation, review and accountability of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union Agenda 2063.

The Summit is scheduled to be hybrid (virtual and physical) with about 200 in-person participants of local and international delegates and about 10,000 virtual participants from across Africa and the world.

The Summit is jointly organized by Youth Advocates Ghana, Talent Youth Association (Ethiopia), United Nations Association (Ethiopia), Federal Ministry of Planning and Development (Ethiopia), Office of the UN Resident Coordinator (Ghana),Office of the UN Resident Coordinator (Ethiopia) with funding and technical support from United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Engender Health and IPPF Africa Regional Office.

Interested participants, speakers and sponsors should visit www.youthsdgssummit.org to register their interest.

For further information, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@youthsdgssummit.org or call +233 242842833 or +251 9141 9256.

From 5–14 August 2025, governments are negotiating in Geneva at the resumed fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5.2) to craft a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution. These talks coincide with International Youth Day 2025, held under the theme “Local Youth Actions for the SDGs and Beyond.” This timing underscores a critical truth: the decisions being made now will shape the environmental future of young people everywhere.

The Sustainable Development Goals  especially SDG 12 on responsible consumption and production, SDG 14 on life below water, and SDG 15 on life on land — cannot be achieved without bold global action on plastics. Yet the negotiations remain divided on fundamental issues. Scope is unsettled. Article 6, on supply or sustainable production, has stalled amid disagreement. Article 3, on plastic products, is split between those pushing for global phase-outs and those relying on voluntary national measures. Article 11, on finance, still offers four competing structures with no clear path to adequate, predictable support for developing countries.

International Youth Day is a reminder that local youth actions — from clean-up campaigns to sustainable design initiatives are essential, but they cannot succeed alone. Without a strong treaty, national and community-level efforts will be undermined by weak global rules and loopholes that allow harmful plastics to keep flowing.

• As negotiations continue, youth demand answers to key questions:

• Will the treaty commit to phasing out the most harmful plastics through transparent, science-based criteria and binding timelines?

• Will design standards be mandatory, ensuring plastics are genuinely reusable, recyclable, and free of toxic chemicals in practice and at scale?

• Will a public registry and reporting system be established to guarantee transparency and accountability?

• Will developing countries receive the financial and technical means to meet treaty obligations?

• Will just transition provisions safeguard the rights and livelihoods of waste pickers and workers in the shift to a circular economy?

This treaty will define how the world tackles plastic pollution for decades. If it is weak, it will lock in low ambition, delay real change, and condemn future generations to live with escalating pollution and its health, economic, and ecological impacts. Transparency, public participation, and robust compliance must be built into its core.

International Youth Day is a call to action. Young people are not asking for any treaty — we are demanding a better treaty. No treaty is better than one that fails to solve the problem and instead hands down an even heavier burden to the generations that follow. As INC-5.2 heads into its final days, negotiators must decide: will they deliver an ambitious, enforceable treaty rooted in science and equity, or will they fail the very people who will inherit its consequences?

Ako Foundation