10 October 2022
BRICS YEA at New York Climate Week and Global Clean Energy Action Forum in Pittsburgh
This September, BRICS Youth Energy Agency participated in New York Climate Week (September 19-27) in parallel with the 77th session of the UN General Assembly and the Global Clean Energy Action Forum (GCEAF) in Pittsburgh (September 21-23) in USA, speaking at and facilitating several events, meeting with colleagues, partners and other youth-led organizations to strengthen youth cooperation ahead of COP 27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, and events of 2023-2024.
Assistant to the Chair Arsenii Kirgizov-Barskii represented BRICS YEA on the ground. Here are some of the highlights:
Global Clean Energy Action Forum (GCEAF) – joint convening of the 13th Clean Energy Ministerial and 7th Mission Innovation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
- BRICS YEA joined the Clean Energy Policy Hackathon as part of an international team of young engineers, diplomats and entrepreneurs from Russia, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and USA. The team provided their vision for lowering greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere and became one of the hackathon laureates.
- BRICS YEA’s Arsenii Kirgizov-Barskii and SDG№7 Youth Constituency’s Vijjasena Sugiono facilitated one of the first sessions of GCEAF’s youth parallel – Creating the Energy Future Forum (CEFF) – on the topic “Financing Youth-Led Clean Energy Solution and Initiatives for Rapid Decarbonization”. The event featured high-level speakers and youth representatives from leading youth organizations from all around the world. This discussion will be continued under the BRICS YEA leadership at the Youth and Children Pavilion of COP27 in Egypt, already approved by UNICEF and other UN bodies.
- Agency was engaged in several events at the venue as participant and / or co-facilitator: “Mobilizing Youth for a Just Transition” (with Student Energy), “Creating a Next Generation Clean Energy Coalition with Nuclear Energy” & “Pittsburgh builds the future of nuclear power” (with NAYGN), “Rethinking Energy Transitions: Gender and Equality” (with UNIDO and Global Equality Coalition). At COP 27, this last topic will be highlighted by BRICS YEA and its partners at the Chairmanship Pavilion.
- BRICS YEA discussed the 2023 Africa-centered agenda with its South African member Kamogelo Sehoole in the context of Pretoria’s chairship in BRICS that started in September. The Agency has started the work on the BRICS Youth Energy Summit in South Africa’s Cape Town in 2023 and gained support for the event from several youth-led organizations and UN parties during this week.
- We visited high-level plenaries with ministers, businessmen, politicians in the framework of GCEAF, including the IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency Dr Fatih Birol and American businessman Bill Gates.
New York Climate Week in parallel with the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, USA
- One of the highlights of our working trip to the US – a great meeting in New York with SE4ALL‘s Akil Callender to discuss present and future projects, COP27 in Egypt, just transition, SE4ALL Summit 2022, SE4ALL and BRICS YEA plans for 2022 and youth opportunities in the climate and energy space.
- BRICS YEA’s Arsenii Kirgizov-Barskii held fruitful meeting with our partners and friends from Student Energy, Youth4Climate, UN MGCY, Danish and Austrian Youth Climate Councils and other youth bodies in New York. Our special thanks go to Meredith Adler, Shakti Ramkumar and Helen Watts from Student Energy for their continued commitment to our cooperation.
In addition to these events, Arsenii also participated in the Nest Summit, the Climate Forward Summit by the New York Times and other sessions of the New York Climate Week happening all over the city.