Youth Voices, Climate Future: Lessons from the Frontline

European Climate Pact Ambassador and UN Youth Delegate for Ireland, Aisling Maloney, sits down with Friend of the Pact and Coordinator at Oileán, Adam Ó Ceallaigh,  to discuss her journey in climate leadership and youth advocacy.

She shares insights into her role representing young people, the work she has been doing in the climate space since taking up the position, and why youth voices are essential for shaping a more sustainable future.

The conversation explores what success looks like for the years ahead, how young people can take meaningful climate action, and the lessons she has learned along the way.

If you are passionate about climate, leadership, or creating change in your community, this is an episode not to miss.

#euclimatepact #myworldourplanet  #climateaction #youthleadership #UNYouthDelegate #sustainability #ireland #youthvoice #podcast #climatepodcast
 


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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:51

Hello and welcome everyone to the Climate Pact podcast. My name is Adam O'Callig. I'm a friend of the Pact from Ireland, and I'm coming to you today from the permanent mission of Ireland to the UN in New York. I'm joined by Ashley Maloney, a Climate Pact ambassador from Ireland, and in another role, one of Ireland's two UN youth delegates, who is here in New York this week for the EcoSoc Youth Forum. Welcome, Ashley.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Thank you, Adam.

SPEAKER_03 1:16

To start, can you tell us a little bit more about your background, where you've come from, and what your journey has been to get you to this point?

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Absolutely. So I'm 23 years old, I'm from County Tipperary, and I recently graduated from UCD back in September before starting the UN Youth Delegate programme. I've kind of been involved in youth advocacy, I suppose, since I was 16. I started off as a lot of young people in the space to through my local Corland and O. Stayed involved in that for um quite a bit of time in secondary school. And then when I moved up to Dublin for college, I got involved with the National Youth Council and a few other different youth organisations up there.

SPEAKER_03 1:50

Fantastic. And to be sitting here in New York at the UN, it's a far cry from the Corland and Oak in Tipperary County Council. What are some of the things that you think sort of pushed you down this direction? Because it's not necessarily, I suppose, an obvious path that appears to everybody.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Yeah, and it's not well known to a lot of people as well. I suppose I was really lucky because I was involved in youth work when I was in secondary school, and the first time I heard about this program was from my youth worker back down in Tipperary who was running kind of local projects on the sustainable development goals because they were still such a relatively new concept at the time, because this was like back in 2018. So she did a lot of work in terms of bringing down these global challenges back down to a local level and making them kind of relevant for our everyday lives as young people just living in a rural area in Tipperary. So I first heard about the programme then and then kind of staying in the youth sphere for a few years, it just kind of always stayed in the back of my mind. And all of the work I've done around like gender equality and education, you know, it always kind of ties back into the work of the UN at one stage or another. So then when the applications opened this time last year and I saw the call open, I was like, why not put my name forward? Perfect.

SPEAKER_03 2:54

Yeah, it lined up brilliantly, I can imagine. And again, as you said, all the work you'd done up to that point almost set you up perfectly for the role. But it would be great if you could expand on what the role is and who you're working with because it's it's not just you, there's two um UN youth delegates for Ireland this year, isn't there?

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Yeah, I'm really lucky to have a wonderful co-delegate with um Carla. Um, so the way that the programme works is that it's run jointly by the National Youth Council of Ireland and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Um, it runs from September to September every year, and it takes on two youth delegates, aged between 18 to 25, and residents on the island of Ireland. And the programme is quite broad because we do, like the program does provide a platform for young people living in Ireland to be represented at the United Nations. And for us this year, that involved going to the UN General Assembly in September. We were at the Commission of the Status of Women back in March, and now we're here at the EcoStock Youth Forum, and we're also looking forward to our upcoming trip to the Human Rights Council in June. So on the international side, like we have a lot of engagements, and when we're at these different like high-level conferences, we are doing interventions on different topics related to the SCGs. We're hosting side events and collaborating with our UNU delegate counterparts from other countries. We've done a lot of work with UNU delegates from Mexico, Peru, Ukraine, and just our like European counterparts as well. But then back home is where most of our work takes place because we do a lot of I suppose outreach activities with schools and youth organizations across Ireland. We've been really pushing that this year to try and get into as many parts of Ireland as possible instead of kind of keeping it to Dublin. So we've been going out to young people in Galway, in Cork, down in Waterford and Wicklow as well, trying to reach as many young people as possible to kind of spread awareness of the programme and show them that like it is possible to get into the UN space. It's very difficult and it can take a long time, but that there are spaces for young people to be involved and have their voices heard and to help other young people have their voices heard as well.

SPEAKER_03 4:42

Yeah, and it sounds like you're a pretty serious role. You almost have the weight of every single young person on your shoulders. I heard today that the young people they're now the largest ever generation of young people that we've experienced in the world, and I suppose when we think about Ireland, I would imagine it's the same. So you and Carla are both the two representatives of all these young people to the UN. And I suppose, as you said, it's one role representing them to the UN, but it's another role bringing the UN back to the people. You said you've been around the country in schools. Can you expand a bit more on the work you're doing there?

SPEAKER_01 5:15

Yeah, I suppose the main way we do it is like mainly through social media because we can't reach every single school in Ireland or every single youth club. So we mainly use Instagram to kind of communicate the work that we're doing. So even this week while we're at the UN, any side events that we go to, any kind of conversations we have or important people that we meet with, we put it up on our social media and kind of explain to young people who we're meeting, why we're meeting them, and what the kind of relevance of the conversation is and how it can tie back to them. So that's like the main platform we use just to communicate the work that we're doing. And then when we're back home, we kind of just get out onto the ground as much as possible. So we've done like presentations to school, just kind of giving them an intro to the UN, what the UN does, how young people can have their voices heard at the UN, and also giving them a bit more information about our program because even though they're in school, like it's something they can keep in mind, like I did, and then when they do turn 18, it's something you would hopefully apply for. We do the same when we go to youth organizations. Usually, when we join them, it's they're doing a consultation on maybe like human rights or a specific topic related to the SCGs, and they'll have us come in as a panelist or an opening remark speaker, just kind of set the tone for the event and again like just communicating the work of the program and what we were doing and just kind of showing them that this is something that they can also get involved in. Like it's not a closed door, like the only requirements for the program really are to be between the age bracket and to be resident on the island. So it really is possible for any young person to put their name forward. We keep busy with all of that, and alongside the outreach engagement, like we also do quite a bit of work with the ministry to make sure that the work that they are doing has youth voices included as well, especially around like youth, peace and security has been a big issue this year, and so we've done a lot more work with the department on that.

SPEAKER_03 6:43

Getting to understand the UN must have been a challenge. It is a major institution with numerous agencies and thousands of staff and missions across the world. How was that for you sort of coming to New York for the first time or your first step into the door to the UN? How did you learn about it? How did you find that people received you? How have you been supported since you first arrived into the position and to the into the institution more broadly?

SPEAKER_01 7:10

I suppose when I first applied for the programme, you know, I did my undergraduate degree in law and politics, so I thought I had a fairly good understanding of the UN compared to most young people, but it was only when I kind of arrived here in New York and landed at the UN doors that I realized how much I like I didn't know. There is this kind of uh grunny joke that goes around that the UN has its own language itself because of all the different abbreviations and um technical terms that's being used here that you kind of just have to learn as you go. So it was a bit of a challenge kind of adapting to that at first, just kind of learning the ropes, figuring out how we fit into this like huge ecosystem of people, like you know, not just like the people in the Irish mission to the UN, but also the UN staff, the other UN youth delegates, the civil society stakeholders that are here as well. It was a lot to kind of figure out at the time, but we had really great support, as you said, from the Irish mission staff, from our co-delegates from across different countries, and as well from the like the staff in the UN youth office as well. You can really tell by like talking to them and working with them just how much they care about like having meaningful youth participation because we just don't always see that in these kind of international spaces. Like a lot of the time we see youth participation just as a nice to have exercise or a tick-the-box thing, but in like and in our experience here, we've really seen it like a mean something to the people we've been working with.

SPEAKER_03 8:13

Yeah, for sure. And I suppose learning that language since since you came in the door on the first day, maybe let's let's look at the language of climate within the UN and I suppose the the SDGs as well. What has it been like learning how the UN policy development processes work around climate or financing processes work there? Is there much to it? Is it a complex system?

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Yeah, I mean it is very complex. Like anything I suppose with the UN is complex, but I suppose, especially when it comes to climate and financing, there's so much technical like technical language in terms there that unless you have like some sort of academic background or work background, like you really are. Um you have to put the work in internet um essentially. Like we any time any kind of side events or conversations we have, like we're always kind of taking down notes because there's constantly new like terminology coming up that we just don't understand, or we just have to be kind of brave enough to ask a question, like, look, I don't know what that means. Can you update it to me? And people have been really supportive in that and making sure that everybody's on the same page and that nobody's kind of like left behind those conversations just because they don't understand, especially for non-English speakers as well, because we're really lucky that the work of the UN is predominantly in English, so it really kind of helps us navigate the space more than it would for UN youth delegates from other countries.

SPEAKER_03 9:19

Definitely, and just taking your point about not leaving people behind, I think that's that's something from my perspective that Ireland seems to do very well at an international level. I know there's a huge focus in Ireland in supporting small island developing states, or even as you were describing to me earlier within the UN youth delegate program itself, Ireland supporting new delegates from Africa to be able to actually have that seat at the table. To to think about your own work in sort of the climate space since starting your role as the UN youth delegate, what has that looked like? Does it mainly involve organising events? Does it involve writing policy papers? Is it is it briefing, I suppose, the representation or the mission here to the UN as to what the youth in Ireland think? What form does that take?

SPEAKER_01 10:03

I suppose climate action and climate change as a topic overall is only one part of our portfolio because a few years ago the programme was built up into the UN youth delegates and the climate youth delegates, so they predominantly work on climate action, so they will be really involved with the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications on working on like climate-related policies and consultations on that side of things. But it also has come up in our work like very naturally because it's still a big topic here at the UN. We've been involved like in helping the climate youth delegates run their consultation at the beginning of the year and to talk to young people about different topics related to the climate. I myself spoke at the Galway Youth Climate Assembly back in October and the NASH Youth Transport Assembly as well, which has like all been like tying into it. We've been engaging in different events, kind of following up from COP 30 as well, talking to young people who were on the ground there and how their experience was because as difficult as the UN can be to navigate here in New York sometimes, like being a COP is a kind of entirely different because it changes venue each year, there's no kind of way of getting used to the system because it changes every single year in terms of like the layout of it and how you can access the space and even the contacts you make as well, because like there's no kind of guarantee that people can get there each year. I suppose in our own as you and you delegates, it's much more of a kind of a learning capacity because it's not something we like focus on ourselves, but like even like no matter what conversations we go to, whether it's related to climate or education or education or gender equality, climate always comes in that way or another, kind of like through the avenue of climate justice. Even one of the first events we went to in September, like um former president Violet Mary Robinson was there, and when I first got involved in climate action back in school, she was someone I really looked up to because I had read her book on climate justice. I was lucky enough to be attending a webinar at the time that she spoke at, and just being able to kind of meet with her in person was just kind of like a kind of full circle moment for me as well. But yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:41

Certainly, I think me, I think Mary Robinson is definitely one of the jewels in the Irish Crown.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

100%.

SPEAKER_03 11:46

And especially how she's represented the country internationally. So thinking then as to why we're actually here in in New York this week, it's it's the EcoSoc Youth Forum. But we were saying earlier in joking just how there the UN has its own language and there are loads of abbreviations, and I suppose EcoSOC is one of those abbreviations. What is the EcoSock?

SPEAKER_01 12:08

So Ecosoc is the Economic and Social Council of the UN, and each year the president of Ecosoc runs the Youth Inc. collaboration with the president of the UN General Assembly and other UN stakeholders to make sure that young people have a real platform at the UN because even when we're here for conferences like CSW, which is the Commission on the Salves of Women, and the UN General Assembly, there's no real space for young people, like there's no kind of dedicated space for young people to come together and have conversations, which is why the Ecosoc Youth Forum is so important because it's a whole week focus on young people. The side events are all related to like young people's role in different topics like climate action, but also around like finances, around like education, around sustainable development as a whole, like in terms of like urban planning and transport policy. So, like any young person who comes in who's lucky enough to be able to access the space, there's so much like learning potential for them and so wish for them to get involved in and see and learn and just make connections as well because they're such an important and valuable space. I was at a side event even earlier today, and it was a room that was predominantly non-UNU delegates. It was young people who had either come themselves and self-funded their own way, or they were lucky enough to be nominated by a civil society organisation. And we were talking about the challenges of getting into the space in the first place. It kind of just resonates how lucky like Ireland is to have a UNU delegate program that is so well supported because any young person who's here this week is just um it really opens your eyes to how the global system works and the role that we can have in it. And if you're not in these rooms, it's very hard to kind of feel that connection to the UN.

SPEAKER_03 13:31

Thinking about the role we can play in in the global system, the people travelling here for the EcoSock Youth Forum, whether funded or not funded, what do you think they're expecting to get out of it? Are there outcomes that we should be hoping for, that we should be pushing for within a forum like this? Is there some sort of measurement of success or what would you like to see come to the end of the week?

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Well, a huge part of the EcoSock Youth Forum is that we kind of focus on the STGs that will be under review at the high-level Pelovo Forum in July, which is all when kind of all the like national delegations from the ministries come from each member state to like actually review the SDGs. So Ecosoc is kind of a preliminary space for that where young people can kind of give their input a hell of those um conversations to make sure that it feeds into the high-level event. Um, because when we talk about meaningful youth participation, you know, it's not just having young people in the room and those conversations are happening, but making sure that they're involved in the process from the very beginning to the very end. So that's why this week is so important because like there are plenary sessions happening this week that we're involved in where we get to make interventions and kind of talk about the priorities that we want to see when these SCGs come under review and what we want to see prioritised by each member state in the years coming ahead. So that's a really like important part of the week for us, but also just for any young person kind of coming in, no matter what capacity they're in. It's just it's a really great environment for them to learn about the work of the UN, no matter if they've never been in the space before, if they've just been nominated by a youth organization just to come and learn. This kind of space for everybody to kind of get what they want and need from the from the conference for the week.

SPEAKER_03 14:55

I think that earning piece is so fundamental to it. Looking forward to the future beyond Ecosoc Youth Forum, you mentioned there's the high-level political forum. Further on this year, you know, we're gonna have sort of the the three cops under under the Rio Convention. What does success look like going into the future for climate? What would you and your your fellow youth delegates be looking for? Or be looking for commitments or any other sort of indications from the UN as to how they're gonna be prioritizing climate uh going forward.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Yeah, well I suppose myself, you know, like I'm very conscious of like trying to not speak into things I'm not an expert on. So something that followed up from COP that we really want to see, I suppose, as a whole going forward is that at the last COP, you know, meet there wasn't really any meaningful youth participation to see, even for the official delegates who were nominated by their member states. The UN Youth Office recently launched their corporate meaningful youth participation and that should be in embedded in all like UN and intergovernmental processes. So I suppose personally for me, I would love to see that implemented in future COP meetings going ahead, all that like from the kind of side events happening on the on the plenary floor to the actual negotiations, making sure that young people, whether they are coming from official delegations or if they're just coming from the kind of grassroots movements, that they are involved in those conversations from the very beginning through the middle to the very end, because there are so many like young people who are experts in different areas of climate action, whether it's in energy, whether it's in water, whether it's in transport, whether it's in climate financing, and they have so much to bring to those conversations, and unless they are meaningfully included by the like decision makers and stakeholders, then we're going to be missing out on their input into these important conversations. So um that would be my ask and going forward for all of Member States.

SPEAKER_03 16:28

Definitely, it's an exciting year. Let's take the climate cop for example. The climate cop is going to be in Turkey in November, and I suppose comparably to last year when it was in Brazil, Turkey is much closer to Ireland, so it's much more accessible if youth or civil society organisations do want to put aside that bit of money to send delegates. I think it's it's gonna be quite accessible. It should be something that they look at doing.

SPEAKER_01 16:51

100%. Hopefully, they'll be the two kind of climate youth delegates go into that from the National Youth Council and Ministry side. But I also know that there are so many environmental organisations based in Ireland who do send youth delegates to it throughout the year. So for any young people listening, I would definitely look into those organizations and like see if you can get involved in their calls because it's just the most incredible experience that you can ever have.

SPEAKER_03 17:13

Fantastic. And with I think so, Australia is co-leading the presidency uh at the Climate COP later on this year, and I know they've put a lot of attention on supporting their Pacific Island neighbours and and it's exciting to see the pre-COP is going to be split between Fiji and Tuvalu. I suppose we might often forget in Ireland that we ourselves are an island nation. I think we're certainly that maybe that's small bit bigger than many of the islands that we might be discussing when we're talking about small island developing states. But do you think that Ireland has a leadership role to play amongst those? I know we're already doing our bit, but going forward in the context of islands and the Climate Cop this year, or maybe further on into the future, what role can Ireland play as a sovereign island state in the context of supporting islands in the Pacific that are or the Caribbean that are just on the front lines of climate change as we see it.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Yeah, well 100%. Like as you said, like Ireland is already like doing a lot of work in terms of like small island developing states, but they're like in any kind of like issue, like there's always more work to be done. And Ireland has a really important role, I suppose, in these intergovernmental processes because we are seen by so many countries around the world as an honest broker and someone who can be trusted. So it would be great to kind of see Ireland taking that lead in the future to make sure that for when those small island um nations can't be in the room where decisions are being made, whether it's because of finances or whether they're just not able to get into the space physically, that like Ireland is kind of like engaging with them, hearing their priorities and speaking up on their behalf for when they can't be there themselves. I love to see that going forward, and yeah, hopefully we will see in the next few years, and especially once we kind of reach the 2030 conclusion of the current sustainable development goals and whatever comes after that, it would be great to see kind of more of an emphasis on like supporting those smaller oasis to be heard in the intergovernmental spaces.

SPEAKER_03 18:56

Yeah, I think that's a really nice note for us to begin finishing up uh this session here today. Maybe just before we go, perhaps thinking about your whole journey within the climate movement or the youth advocacy movement or any part of your journey that you want to think of specifically. I would imagine you have plenty of stories, plenty of learnings, and plenty of advice to give. Can you think of one item off the top of your head that you'd like to share with our listeners today as to something you learned that stood with you and has brought you this far?

SPEAKER_01 19:24

Kind of a mantra I've been holding with my myself this year is to kind of be a bit of a chancer because when you're in these spaces, like you know, there's always that kind of nerve of not wanting to kind of like go outside your like your remit or your boundaries. But something that we've just kind of told ourselves is because our time here is so short that we might never get like the chance to do something twice. So we've kind of told ourselves like to be a bit of a chancer, like the worst thing that somebody can say is no. So if we want to be like go to an event that is an open invitation, like just ask. If you want to have a chat with somebody, reach out to them. The worst thing that somebody can say is no, and like the hardest step about being or the hardest part about getting involved in these spaces is kind of being brave enough to take that first step, whether it is kind of putting your name into an application form, whether it's sending an email or a message on social media to somebody you want to kind of work with or engage with. It's just kind of just having that piece of bravery and not kind of acknowledging your own value and your work and what you can bring into these conversations and not letting anybody kind of diminish that. So that would be my advice is to just be a bit of a chancer, be a bit bold, and be a bit brave.

SPEAKER_03 20:21

I think that's that's lovely advice. I I know one of my favourite quotes sort of is completely in line with that, and it's a quote by Samuel Beckett, and um he says, Ever tried, ever failed, no matter. Try again, fail again, fail better. And I think that's a lovely message from yourself that that we should end today's podcast on. So thank you very much to all of you that have joined us today for our discussion with Ashling Maloney, Climate Pact ambassador, and one of Ireland's two UNU delegates this year. I've been Adam O'Kalleg. This has been the Climate Pact Podcast, and hopefully we see you again soon.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

Thank you for staying with us through the European Climate Pact Podcast, hosted by the Pact Ambassadors and Country Coordinating Ireland. We hope you're feeling inspired to take climate action in your own life, community, or organization. All the lovely specific engagement tools you can use to solve your comments, journey until the next slide.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

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