Season 3, Episode 18: Paul

On Climate Action Figures, host John Whidden interviews Paul Jenkinson. Paul explains how young people can connect with the climate movement through YOUNGO, the UN’s children and youth constituency, and describes co-facilitating YOUNGO’s Global Youth Statement—a major youth declaration with multiple versions (including five key demands) built from individual, organizational, and over 100 national youth conference inputs. He recounts presenting key demands to UN Secretary-General António Guterres and compares COPs in Dubai, Baku, and Brazil, calling Brazil the most chaotic logistically but more emotionally engaged politically. Paul also discusses European Young Engineers, his work designing net-zero-ready district heat networks in London, AI’s promise and regulatory risks, responses to renewable intermittency concerns, his reuse habit using jars at home, and hope from global youth collaboration.

00:00 Welcome to the Show

00:27 QuickFix Toy Car Library

01:13 Meet Paul Jenkinson

02:42 Finding Climate Networks

04:24 Joining Youngo via EYE

05:56 Global Youth Statement Explained

07:31 How the Statement Is Built

09:14 Presenting to UN Leaders

10:30 Inside the Brazil COP

12:13 Europe Views the UN

13:31 European Young Engineers

15:39 Paul’s Low Carbon Job

16:21 Heat Networks and AI

18:16 Answering Renewables Critics

20:53 Paul’s Climate Action Tip

21:36 Hope and Closing Thanks

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VPBDApCMj3s5gpbezkMDGMrFfOtBe8CK

https://youngoclimate.org/

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Transcript

Paul 0:00

Hi, I am Paul Jenkinson, and you are here with us on Climate Action Figures.

John 0:13

Hello, and welcome to this week's edition of Climate Action Figures. My name as always is John Whidden, and this week on the show you get to meet Paul. But first, this week's QuickFix. Heather from Edmonton shared the story of a father and son in Nova Scotia, which is one of the eastern most provinces of Canada, if you're not from Canada. The father and son created a little free library. I'm gonna jump in again if you're not. familiar with this concept. This is a a, a box usually on, on a post on people's front lawns, and they put books in and people take a book, leave a book. It's kind of like a free exchange of books, but in this story, the free library was for toy cars, matchbox or hot wheel cars. And the deal was that you take one and leave a different one. So thank you very much to the father and son who came up with that great idea and for Heather for sharing it with us. Welcome Paul.

Paul 1:15

Hi John. Thanks for having me here.

John 1:18

What do you think about that QuickFix?

Paul 1:20

Yeah, I think it's fantastic. I think, um, there's, there's something that's so great about it coming from a family background in particular, and, um, being able to teach, especially youth in our society about sharing and having these community-based initiatives is so important and something that we can really lack at the moment.

John 1:39

our economic system is so often based on buy, buy, buy, consume, consume, consume. So it's kind of nice when you see something that could be shared and not over consumed, overbought. They mentioned in the story that the, the son in question who had created the box had to really think hard about, you know, am I gonna, I really want that new one that just appeared here today, but now. I have to give up one of mine. So there's a lot of good lessons in that. Now Harshita is a happening doctor who we interviewed last season connected us and also connected us with Vaibhav who we interviewed a couple weeks ago. Uh, by the way, do you know Vaibhav.

Paul 2:15

it's funny you ask because Vaibhav actually stayed on my sofa last year in London, um, when, when he was down for climate event. And I, I think, um, that's such a good point about the way that our circles work in the climate movement because Vaibhav was messaging into one of our climate groups that we have here in London, mentioning he was gonna be down and of course he could, bunk on my sofa, you know, the rent prices in London and the hotels and hostels.

John 2:42

I'm curious to ask for young people who are watching or listening in who want to get connected, what are the best ways to do that, to get connected into those circles?'Cause like you say, they, they really do exist in a, in a big way, but how do you get in there?

Paul 2:57

There's a variety of ways and lots of different opportunities and it is growing every year the, the climate movement, of course, as the climate crisis gets more difficult. Um, we, we are having more initiatives, more openings, more volunteers, uh, all coming together. Um, my way in has been through Youngo. So this is the Children and Youth Constituency of the United Nations and the, the two colleagues and friends who you just mentioned are also members. And I'd recommend anyone under the age of 35 who might be watching or listening to this to follow Youngo and to join as a member. It's a great way of at least, uh, beginning to interface with the community and finding out more about the different networks that are, uh, all across the climate space.

John 3:39

And so that is your connection with Harshita as well, was through Youngo.

Paul 3:43

Yeah, that's right. So, um, we've worked together for over two years now. Um, I first met Harshita at a conference in Germany, yeah, I've seen her since then in, uh, Azerbaijan, Brazil and Germany once more. So it's, uh, it, it makes some pretty special connections, um, with, with this global landscape that we are working in as well.

John 4:04

And you've already mentioned the COPs, the climate conferences that happen on an annual basis. And at COP 30 last year, you co-led facilitation and delivery Of Youngo's Global Youth Statement to the COP presidency and other parties, even to Antonio Gutierrez, we've had a lot to unpack there. So let's start with Youngo. How did you get involved with Youngo and what attracts you to that, uh, organization?

Paul 4:30

I've been involved with Youngo for a number of years now. I actually joined Youngo by way of another organization, as is often the case for people who

John 4:39

Hmm.

Paul 4:39

working in the community. So prior to my time at Youngo, I was actually volunteering with a group called European Young Engineers. I became the president of this organization, which is spanning 22 countries, fully volunteered organization with lots of engineers across Europe who are trying to dedicate their work and their time to building different initiatives across Europe. Two years ago, we were accepted to become observers of the UNFCCC process. Lots of acronyms, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This meant that we were able to attend the COP and we were able to put forward our voice as European young engineers to connect with all of these different groups around the world. And that meant becoming a part of Youngo as well. So as soon as I became a part of Youngo through EYE, I decided to pick up as many roles as I could, uh, manage and to be able to contribute in the energy working group as well as the policy working group, which has led me to the role I hold today where I've been co-facilitating the Global Youth Statement for children, youth around the world and for Youngo of course, uh, by virtue of that.

John 5:48

We're gonna come back to EYE in a moment, but, uh, first this Youngo statement to the COP presidency and other parties. What was that exactly?

Paul 5:57

The Global Youth Statement is something that we have been working on and by we, I mean, uh, many generations at Youngo now from way before my time as well, the Global Youth Statement is the largest declaration by children and youth in the world, uh, to the parties of the conference to the United Nations. And this is where we try to form a collective voice for children and youth globally to be handed to the parties of the conference. This means that when we are on ground at the COP, we are able to share a single voice and to be able to ask the presidency to implement certain demands. These demands span a whole width of different, uh, disciplines. For example, I work in energy, Harshita, you mentioned, works in health, Vaibhav, in food and agriculture, and you can imagine for a statement that is representing everything in climate change. There are over 20, 30 different topics that we are trying to cover for what we want to see the negotiating parties actually implement at the conference. It's really important that we are working together to have that voice because then we are seen as children and youth and we are able to be more powerful when we are on ground and also online to have a voice that we can get behind to even enable many people who might be listening, who want to get involved with the movement to understand what the different demands are.

John 7:18

Speaking for the youth of the world is a pretty big responsibility, not to mention, trying to take all those different areas and mesh them into, into a statement. Uh, tell us a bit about that process and the statement itself.

Paul 7:31

The process is built throughout the entire year. We're already beginning the process for 2026, for example. And we collect inputs from a variety of sources from individuals, any individual is able to submit a statement to Youngo. We also collect from organizations, so for example, European Young Engineers are able to submit their perspective as well as youth organizations around the world. We also collect from the local conferences of youth. Now, this is a, a really big portion of our collection. These are the national conferences that take place each year across the world. So last year we held over a hundred of them in a hundred different countries where groups of young activists are developing their own national youth statement to submit to their governments, to their local industry, their local organizations. And this is something that feeds into the global youth statement and helps to build our single voice. You mentioned is, is it a big document and Yes. Uh, this year we got to 141 pages for the largest version. Now, of course, nobody is able to read 141 pages in such a busy, chaotic atmospheri at COP. So we do provide different options as well. We have a five key demands version and we also have a negotiation aligned demands version, and we make sure that when we are building this statement, it is split up into the different thematics so that if there is somebody looking at energy like myself, or looking at gender, looking at finance, all of these different topics, they're able to flip directly to the pages that they want to see and see a few pages on the demands, uh, rather than the entire, uh, expansive edition.

John 9:14

So you take what must be a huge amount of time and energy to put this thing together and then you present it to, uh, I read Antonio Gutierrez, who's the Secretary General of the UN. Did you actually present to him or to other officials and how were you received?

Paul 9:29

It's important to stress that while, while I'm one person here on this podcast. There's so many people around the world contributing to this. When we were presenting, our team presented to Antonio Gutierrez on ground. We held a bilateral meeting. We were able to discuss some of the key demands with him, which was really great, that was with some of my colleagues in the team. So it is really with those very high level people, and that is why it is so important that while all of the organizations in this space are building their own initiative. Maybe it's regional, maybe it's specific to a certain topic. We really need to have that global, high level perspective as well so that when we are approaching these very high level figures, we are still able to provide collective demands and once again, it's really important to appreciate the responsibility that comes with that. Of course, children and youth are, I believe 52% of the demographic around the world. And like you say, it's an incredible task to try and represent everyone

John 10:30

Tell us a little bit about the Brazil COP and how it compared to previous COPs.

Paul 10:35

This was my third COP. I had already been to Dubai and Baku, so by this point I feel quite well instated in this space. And like I know what I'm doing with collecting my badge and navigating the COP process. That being said, this was the most chaotic COP that I've been to, and a, a variety of factors led into that. Firstly, of course, being in the rainforest and the accommodation was quite a challenge to be able to facilitate. I have to say in caveat that being in the rainforest, talking about climate change felt like there was no better place on earth to be once we had got there. Thereafter there were the challenges with the venue flooding. There was actually a fire at the venue as well, as well as local Indigenous protesters who were protesting on various domestic issues. So. It was very hectic on top of the 55,000 people that were visiting. Of course, trying to represent and advocate for our demands with the global youth statements. It was a big challenge. We didn't have quite the same logistical challenges in Azerbaijan and in Dubai. That being said, in terms of the political side of things and the negotiations. I have to say that the Brazilian team did seem to bring more of an emphasis for instance, even just at the closing ceremony, the Brazilian president himself was in tears when, when doing his final speech, and he stayed to the end. He came and sat with us as civil society representatives and listened to our closing speeches. There was more of an effort and more emotion involved in this COP.

John 12:13

Most of our audience is North American, and so I'd love to hear your European perspective on a couple of things. The United States, just to go off on a bit of a tangent here, has always seemed to find friction with or lacked trust in the United Nations, but especially of course in the past six months or so, how is that mistrust seen from a European perspective?

Paul 12:35

It's a big challenge. I'm from the UK and we had Brexit occur, uh, quite recently. So there, there are always these geopolitical challenges, but ultimately I know for instance, the UK is very strongly behind the United Nations, uh, in the climate change sphere. And I think it's something that is absolutely imperative for us to be working together. We need these multilateral forums. They are difficult to be working in, but they are very much, necessary for collaboration because there, there are so many countries around the world now that need to be, cooperating and engaging in dialogue. And while the US has, for instance, left the Paris Agreement and now left all of these, uh, international institutions, these institutions are not going to stop. They will continue. They will have dialogue, Even without a, a superpower as big as the US and in the future we might see some challenges that come with, with the US leaving these different institutions.

John 13:31

You mentioned European Young Engineers, since we're talking about Europe, uh, what is the focus of that group exactly.

Paul 13:38

European young engineers has been around, uh, longer than I have since 1994 actually, uh, when a group of Dutch engineers and Belgian engineers decided to meet up and then decided that it would be great to collect more countries across Europe. Uh, now here we are today with over 20 countries across Europe, all engaging in biannual conferences. We come together, we exchange in dialogue, we make friendships and networks. We visit different organizations. And now, uh, in the previous two years since we have been engaging in the COP process, we also are representing the policy view of European Young Engineers as well. That's at the EU level, as well as the UN level. So it's a really exciting space at the moment. Again, fully volunteered, lots of people doing amazing, inspiring work to make sure that there is a collective voice for young engineers across Europe.

John 14:34

And is EYE, uh, covering all kinds of topics amongst engineers. Or is it more focused on environmental and climate change topics?

Paul 14:42

Being a youth organization, I think we have leniency towards environment and climate because this tends to be a topic that as youth we are so passionate about, and it's a real opportunity with our engagement at the UN. That being said, we are working across, uh, a whole bunch of fields. We have software engineers, robotics engineers, agriculture, chemical, myself, mechanical. So we are all coming together in these different ways. And for example, in Georgia, in our last conference, we actually held a symposium where engineers who had come from all of these different countries were able to come and share research, uh, interests, share projects, and to do a presentation, uh, uh, to the rest of the engineers. So it's a really great way to be exchanging, uh, uh, like that and, um, of course to, to be building relationships and networks as well. As a fully youth-led organization, it really gives, uh, lots of leadership opportunities there.

John 15:39

Now you mentioned that you're a chemical engineer. What's your specialty in that area?

Paul 15:43

I'm now working, uh, in London as a low carbon district energy design engineer. That means I'm designing entirely net zero ready low carbon heating networks across London. For instance, uh, most people have seen Harry Potter platform nine and three quarters. That building King's cross train station is on one of our heat networks, and the same goes for Wembley football stadium and we designed solutions. That are, uh, fully electrified, uh, using air source heat pumps to provide energy heating, sometimes cooling as well to entire districts around the city and even outside the city. So, that's my day job.

John 16:21

One more question for you, Paul, about your specific job. Since you're an engineer, chemical engineer and you, you deal with these interesting systems, is engineers seem to know ahead of the general populace these things that are coming down the pipe. Is there something interesting coming that, uh, we should be aware of?

Paul 16:36

Definitely plenty of directions. I could take that question. Of course. I mean, there's all the buzzwords, ai, sustainability, all of this stuff. I think, um, the, the main thing, I work in heat networks. This is something that, um, lots of countries are gonna be driving towards. Looking at the UK for instance, we are currently at 2% of homes provided, uh, heat by a heat network that's targeted to become 20% by 2050. Of course, there is also smartification. There's. Better use of energy and learning with different tariffs, different thermostats, how energy can be used and balanced off with the grids to make money even for the end consumers. Watching the space there for innovative new opportunities, uh, even across North America, I'm sure there'll, there'll be similar trends there too.

John 17:25

We could do a whole episode on AI. And so we can't, we can't go very far down this rabbit hole. But I have to ask you, because you are an engineer and you've thought about these things: In your view, and if you can do it in a few words, what are the most important benefits that are coming from AI and the most scary things about AI for you.

Paul 17:46

Efficiency is number one, right? The, the potential is really limitless with these new, innovative ideas. It's, it's beyond our thinking, it's AI, right? But I think that is quite equally the, the, the biggest challenge regulation. Uh, there is seemingly no real regulation around this at the moment. And it's something that can easily be made dangerous if it is not kept a close eye on.

John 18:16

We have a resident engineer who answers difficult questions for us on Climate Action Figures whenever an audience member stumps us. And so I had to ask him, do you have a question for the engineer we're going to interview? And he had this for you. He said: here in Western Canada, we are in oil and gas country, there's a huge resistance to solar and wind power. The arguments usually involve statements such as solar and wind can't provide all of our power requirements, but oil and gas can. Or what happens when there's no wind, and the solar panels are covered in snow. I'm curious to know how you would respond to those arguments.

Paul 18:53

Great question and it's good to hear that you have a resident engineer. This is very selective questioning, right? What happens when the oil and gas market crashes, right? You are going to be reliant on, oil and gas, which is not necessarily going to be around for a long time. The trends globally, of course in the US there is lots of backsliding on different climate agendas. Globally, we are moving towards a, a climate transition, and this is the way that we are moving globally. And so long as you have wind and solar in your national, uh, demographic, it is going to be something that cannot be taken away from you. And it is not something that can be put a price on by external players. Geopolitics is becoming fascinating at the moment, but it's also becoming a big player for risk too. So I'd, I'd say getting more wind and solar is. Something that's gonna benefit a lot. It certainly is in the UK for instance, where we are enhancing our wind at astronomical rates across the last decade or so.

John 19:56

and what would be your answers to those specific questions about It's not always windy. The solar panels don't always get, uh, clear skies to get their sun.

Paul 20:06

It is a challenge and it isn't always windy and that's right, it's not always sunny, but that is about balancing the energy storage where it's a real challenge. So, uh, we have to be storing energy and once we have, uh, excess. Uh, renewable energy, we're going to be able to do that more, more, uh, rapidly. Um, there are emerging technologies, of course in, in Canada for instance you benefit from very, very large terrain with the mountains and with potential for pumped hydro storage, uh, which is a huge potential energy storage solution. And, um, having these kind of examples is going to really help with balancing off those different peaks and troughs that, that come with intermittent renewable energies.

John 20:53

Well, thanks for your perspective on that, and thanks to Geoff for the question and let's talk about your climate action. What have you chosen for us today for your climate action?

Paul 21:01

I've actually been inspired by my flatmates bit recently. I noticed both of my flatmates have been using leftover jam jars and different jars of whatever kind as glasses, there's plant propagation all around the house as, uh, even storage for little dishwasher tablets, making use of them in any way. And, um, I think it's something that, that has gone a long way and it helps to personalize if you are living in rented accommodation like me, it helps to make you feel more at home for sure. And, um, definitely shout out to my flatmates for, uh, the, the inspiration of that one.

John 21:36

What gives you hope Paul?

Paul 21:38

What gives me hope, it has to be the inspiration that I feel when I am on ground at these different global conferences, when I am working with the likes of Harshita, Vaibhav, when I am connected with these different people and knowing that they are doing the same back home. Um, it's something that is very special when we are on ground at COP. When there is so much conflict, when there is so much, splintering of different countries, different parties, different negotiation groups who cannot come to an agreement, but we are there collectively all behind a global use statement, behind the same movement. We are lifting other up, and we are not bound by those national interests. We are all aspiring towards a global interest, which is tackling climate change. And I think the hope that I feel working with these different inspirational children and youth around the world and knowing that we are going to be in those positions in the future, I just hope we are able to hold onto that feeling of collaboration that we have when we are working on these initiatives and able to, to help drive that more into, into the future of our planet.

John 22:47

Well, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to be with us here today, Paul.

Paul 22:52

Of course! Thanks for having me. It's been an honor and um, yes, thanks so much.

John 22:58

And thank you dear listener or viewer. If you know of a young climate action figure we should talk with, please let us know via social media or Climateactionfigures@gmail.com. We will be back again next week, same time, same place to hear from another climate action figure. Until then,

Paul 23:15

Go figures!