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Peace Boat launches the 3rd edition of the Ocean and Climate Youth Ambassadors Programme at COP24
During a side event at UN Climate Change 24th Conference of Parties (COP24), in Katowice (Poland), Peace Boat announced the third edition of its Ocean and Climate Youth Ambassadors Programme. Peace Boat will invite a group of young people from the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean to travel from Valletta (Malta) to New York (United States) with stops and activities in Motril (Spain), Tangier (Morocco) and Ponta Delgada (Portugal). The programme will take place from May 24 to June 8, 2019, during the 101st Peace Boat Global Voyage.
During the event, H.E. Mr. Ronald Jumeau, Ambassador for Climate Change and Small Island Developing State Issues, and Permanent Representative to the United Nations of the Republic of Seychelles talked about the importance of programmes like this to empower young people. "We need young people to sit on the table, to fight to tackle climate change. They are not the leaders of tomorrow, they are the leaders of today", he said.
During the same event at COP24, a former Peace Boat's Ocean and Climate Youth Ambassador, Genevieve Jiva, made a call to all the young leaders from Large Ocean States to apply. "For me, it was truly a journey of learning and sharing, discovering new places and solutions, realizing the potential we all have to address climate change", she said.
The goal of this programme is to bring youth leaders from states on the front line of climate change and marine degradation to travel onboard Peace Boat's ship, engaging in capacity building and bringing their message to citizens and government representatives through the voyage.
Next year, the programme will start in Malta, a country that has stood proudly on the global stage on ocean protection and organized the Our Conference in 2017. It will conclude in New York where Peace Boat's vessel will dock in Manhattan during World Oceans Day. Activities will be organized in collaboration with United Nations partners. The voyage will be crossing the Atlantic Ocean with a symbolic stop in the capital of the Azores archipelago.
The selected candidates must be from a country which is a member of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). You can check the list of countries which can participate here. The youth must be between 18 and 29 years old and be available for the full entirety of the programme. All the conditions of the programme and how apply can be found here.
Peace Boat started the programme on September-October 2017 when youth from Fiji, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Seychelles, Maldives, Belize and Trinidad and Tobago were invited onboard the ship for three weeks from Barcelona to New York. The second edition took place on June-July 2018 when youth from Fiji, Palau, Timor-Leste, Seychelles, Mauritius, Singapore, and Barbados joined the ship from Stockholm to New York. During the first edition of the programme a documentary film, ‘Against the Tide', was filmed. You can watch the film here.