Young people, whose futures are at stake in UN climate talks, push through anger to fight for hope

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Young people who attend the United Nations climate talks have a lot to be angry about. They've lost loved ones and months of school. They've lost homes and family farms and connections to their families' native lands.

They haven't lost hope, though. Not yet.

“It has become so tiring for me to be just a poster child,” said Marinel Ubaldo, who by age 16 had watched two back-to-back supersized typhoons destroy entire communities in her native Philippines. Missing a chunk of high school in the aftermath, because there was no school to go back to, was a wake-up call. Now 27, COP29 will be her sixth time attending the summit where leaders negotiate the future she will inherit.

“I guess I'm very pessimistic, but I’m going to be positive that this COP could actually bring more clarity,” she said.

Her pessimism isn't unwarranted. Fewer leaders were in attendance this year, with a backdrop of uncertainty as political will on climate unravels in major countries like the U.S. and Germany. While many passionate youth want to protest, this will be the third straight COP in an authoritarian country with tighter controls on protests and speech. And for many of the young people hardest hit by climate extremes, it's simply difficult and expensive to get to the conference.

“We have this constant challenge of having sometimes the youth forums with spaces at the margins of the decision maker spaces,” said Felipe Paullier, assistant secretary general for youth affairs in the United Nations youth office. That's why the U.N. has been working to institutionalize the role of youth in the climate talks, he said.

And climate change has a disproportionate impact on children around the world. Their growing bodies have a harder time handling extreme heat, which also causes an uptick in premature births and childhood malnutrition, said UNICEF assistant secretary-general Kitty van der Heijden.

“We are simply not doing good enough for children in this world. We are failing children,” she said.

All of that means young people are feeling the burden of speaking up about climate change more than ever. And many of those who come to COP, and even some of the ones who don't, said they feel tired — weighed down by the knowledge that year after year, they show up to speak and don't have a lot to show for it. This was the third year in a row that Earth's projected warming hasn't improved.

“I think for a lot of young people from extremely climate vulnerable nations, it actually it doesn’t feel like much of a choice” to speak out about climate change, said 20-year-old Fathimath Raaia Shareef, from the Maldives.

Shareef's grandmother migrated south to the small island nation's capital, so she has never had the opportunity to see what her family's home island was like. Growing up, after she found out about sea level rise, she had recurring nightmares about her island sinking. She would wake up crying.

“How am I supposed to focus on anything else when when my island, when my home country is at risk?” she asked.

It's that focus that brings many young people to the table even as they question their faith in the possibility that international negotiations can achieve real change. Here at his fourth COP, 15-year-old Francisco Vera Manzanares of Colombia called the U.N. summit a necessary but “very difficult space” to be in. He thinks slow pace of change from countries around the world creates a “credibility crisis” in the institutions that are most needed to keep the goals that require global cooperation within reach.

“People listen to children. But, let's say, it’s different (to) listen than hear,” he said.

That's why he hopes more adults will help children meaningfully advocate for themselves in a crisis where they have the most to lose — and the most to save.

“It's our rights. It's our future. It's our present,” he said.

Follow Melina Walling on X, formerly Twitter, @MelinaWalling.

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Attendees pose at the Children and Youth Pavilion at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Activists participate in a demonstration for climate finance at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Francisco Vera Manzanares, 15, center, a climate activist from Colombia, reacts while listening during a forum with young activists, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

Francisco Vera Manzanares, 15, center, a climate activist from Colombia, speaks with Felipe Paullier, left, U.N. assistant secretary-general for youth affairs, during a forum with young activists, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

Francisco Vera Manzanares, 15, a climate activist from Colombia, speaks with other youth activists during a forum with young activists, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

An activist holds a globe that says silenced during a demonstration during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Activists participate in a demonstration at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Francisco Vera Manzanares, 15, center, a climate activist from Colombia, listens during a forum with young activists, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A special tribunal in Bangladesh on Monday told investigators they have one month to complete their work on ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her close aides, who face charges of crimes against humanity after hundreds of people were killed in a mass uprising this summer.

Golam Mortuza Majumdar, the head judge of the three-member International Crimes Tribunal, set Dec. 17 for investigators to finish their work, as the tribunal heard updates Monday from police about what the country's security agencies have done to arrest Hasina and her close aides.

The decision came after prosecutors sought more time for the investigation.

Mohammed Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor of the tribunal, told the judges during Monday's hearing that they were working in line with an extradition treaty signed earlier with India to make Hasina's return possible.

Hasina has been living in exile in India since Aug. 5 when she fled the country amid the student-led protests. The Dhaka-based tribunal on Oct. 17 issued arrest warrants for Hasina and 45 others, including former Cabinet ministers, advisers and military and civil officials. The country is now being run by an interim government headed by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus.

At least 13 people, including a former law minister and a businessman who was Hasina’s private-sector adviser, appeared before the tribunal on Monday, said B.M. Sultan Mahmud, a prosecutor at the tribunal. One former Cabinet minister was not brought to the tribunal as he was in custody for police interrogation in a separate case. A further six people will appear on Wednesday, tribunal officials said. At least 20 suspects have been arrested in the case.

The tribunal will also seek updates from police on their progress in arresting the other suspects, including Hasina.

After the hearing on Monday, the tribunal’s head judge ordered authorities to send all 13 suspects to jail, pending investigation.

The chief prosecutor of the tribunal has already sought help from Interpol through the country’s police chief to arrest Hasina. On Sunday, Yunus said in an address to the nation that his administration would seek Hasina's extradition from India.

Authorities say hundreds of people were killed during the uprising in July and August, mainly by security agents seeking to quell the initial protests over government jobs. The violence intensified as the protests morphed into an anti-government movement, with more bloodshed, ending Hasina’s 15-year rule. Hasina had also earlier sought an investigation into the killings.

FILE- Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina checks her watch as she waits for the official opening time to cast her vote in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File)