UWCD has been awarded the status as the organiser of the Local Conference of Youth (LCOY) in Armenia, an event in the framework of the United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties (COP), which takes place in Dubai at the end of November. Held on 29 October at UWC Dilijan in the run up to COP28, this is the first conference in Armenia within the UN youth outreach programme.
About 80 young people, including 65 from Armenian high schools ages 16-18, participated in the LCOY. The participants came from various regions in Armenia, including Yerevan, Shirak, Lori, Tavush, Vanadzor, and Armavir. Additionally, there were participants from several countries, such as Russia, Macedonia, Australia, France, the Netherlands, Palestine, South Africa, and Serbia.
The theme of LCOY Armenia was “CLIMATE CRISIS: HOW WE CAN ALL CONTRIBUTE TO SOLVING IT”. Student-led, the conference focused on local issues, with the Armenian experts briefing the participants on the status in Armenia and a number of workshops on practical steps to tackle climate change. The main issues which were discussed during the conference were:
● Energy Efficiency of Buildings – Vahram Jalalyan, Coordinator of “De-Risking and Scaling-up Investment in Energy Efficient Building Retrofits” UNDP-GCF project
● Water Security in Armenia – Alexander Arakelyan, Advisor for Integrated Water Resources Management (EU4Sevan Project) at Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
● Climate Change Policy in Armenia – Diana Harutunyan, Programme Manager at UNDP Armenia
● How Can Circular Economy Support in Solving the Climate Crisis – Irina Mkrtchyan,
Co-founder, Innovative Solutions for Sustainable Development of Communities (ISSD) NGO
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By the end of the conference, participants were engaged together in drafting a statement and were asked to write pledges of their commitment to change habits in their own lives and/or to influence practices in their own schools and communities.
With the support of The Good Investors, two students, David Khanoyan from British International School and Sophie Nalbandyan from Dilijan High School were awarded internships with Climate UTURN.
Erdni Mangutov (Russia, UWCD’24), a member of YOUNGO, an organisation behind LCOYs, spearheaded the application process for UWCD to be a site for LCOY. He said, “It was truly inspiring to see the diverse representation of countries and regions coming together in Armenia to address sustainability and environmental concerns at the conference. I hope that this conference has motivated everyone to take meaningful actions to drive positive change in these critical areas and that it would become an annual event. Creating awareness about climate change is the foundation for creating behaviourial change of as individuals and as society on the whole.”
