What is the Youth Call to Action on Climate Intervention?
We - young leaders from around the world - demand immediate and genuine action on research and dialogue in climate interventions to reduce the worst impacts of climate change. We call upon policymakers, scientists, fellow youth, and other stakeholders to implement our Youth Call to Action (YCA) on Climate Intervention. All too frequently climate intervention is discussed among those who will not live to see the worst impacts of climate change, and young stakeholders are left out of key decision-making meetings and dialogues on the issue.
The Youth Call to Action on Climate Intervention - inspired by a similar youth-led, youth-made document on adaptation initiated by the Global Center on Adaptation - presents a youth position in support of research and dialogue on climate intervention to help expand the options available to support a better future. The YCA developed as part of SilverLining's Global Young Leaders Initiative (GYLI), consists of proposals under six categories: Guiding Principles to Move Forward, Education & Awareness, Research, Youth Cooperation & Inclusion, Youth Agency & Empowerment, and Youth Advocacy.
We hope that this document provides a blueprint for inclusive climate change policymaking and contributes to achieving greater intergenerational justice for young people within the climate change policy and decision-making processes.
Context for Research in Climate Intervention
“Climate change is widespread, rapid and intensifying," according to the Sixth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Working Group 1 report. Many of the observed changes in the climate have no precedent in not thousands, but in hundreds of thousands of years, and that some of these changes, such as the continuous rise in sea level, cannot be reversed until within several centuries or millennia.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is critical to reducing and limiting the negative effects of climate change. However, since the planet is experiencing irreversible changes at a rapid and unprecedented pace, and emissions reduction takes many decades to affect climate and impacts, complementary pathways must be explored.
Stakeholders around the world are beginning to consider possibilities for climate interventions such as carbon dioxide removal and solar climate intervention (also referred to as “solar radiation modification”). These approaches could potentially mitigate the effects of climate change and keep natural systems stable while society transitions to a zero-carbon and sustainable future.