Awareness of climate change and establishing a pathway for youth voices to be heard is what Fogamomi Nicc Moeono and his Local Conference of Youth (LCOY) Samoa team aim for.

LCOY is under the umbrella of YOUNGO – the official youth constituency of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate – which is an international network of youth organisations that collectively aim to inspire, empower and mobilise a generational movement of young people to take positive action against climate change.

Fogamomi is the Local Conference of Youth (LCOY) organiser.

“This is the first time such an event has happened in Samoa where youth from different associations and schools are brought together for a dialogue on climate change,” he said. “This is for youth in Samoa to talk about climate change, to get them familiar with the negotiation process and allow them access to contribute towards the global climate change negotiations.

“There has always been a huge gap in how local people can contribute to international dialogues and this is one way to fill that gap.

"Without our sponsors, this event wouldn’t be happening and so for the next LCOY event, I am honestly hoping that it would be bigger where we can hopefully fund youth from rural communities to join us.

“This is a call for organisations for potentially next year, to help us fund other youths from the rural and coastal communities to attend these dialogues.” 

According to Fogamomi, a lot of the local youth have lived experiences of the loss and damage of climate change but do not particularly understand its category in the climate change space. The interactive sessions led to a lot of questions from the participants to the experts on the topics, who shared insights in four thematic sessions throughout the day.

At the end of the event, they will be able to compile an LCOY Samoa report that would directly feed into the global youth statements as well as the 28^th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP 28).

Pitapola Ioane, 20, is a second-year student studying marine science at the University of the South Pacific (U.S.P.) Alafua Campus. He joined the seminar with interest and this would contribute greatly to what he is studying.

“It has been pretty interesting. There’s a lot of new information and I like being exposed to this and finding out all the real problems from what I have been learning in the classroom and this is the application where I am seeing the results of what I have learnt,” he said. “We are hearing new solutions and it’s pretty exciting. 

"For the youth, these seminars are important for our future and it is our responsibility to carry the country. It is important information that we are supposed to know if we are to further develop Samoa.”