COY18 is the 18th iteration of the Conference of Youth (COY), happening in the UAE in 2023.

The Conference of Youth (COY) is an annual event under the banner of YOUNGO – The Official Youth Constituency of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) - and is the biggest and most substantial youth conference related to the multilateral UN climate processes.

COY typically commences a couple of days before the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) in the same hosting country. The event brings together youth from around the world to connect and exchange ideas while also building their capacities and exposing them to hubs of opportunity. Perhaps most importantly, COY formally brings the voices of youth to the UNFCCC processes to shape the intergovernmental climate change policies through its production of the Global Youth Statement.

Read more on COY and YOUNGO.

Regretfully, the application deadline has passed and the respective invitation letters have been already sent. However, COY is an event that takes place every year, so we encourage you to follow up for the next one!

COY18 will be taking place in Dubai from the 26th to the 28th of November, 2023. The program will ensue over the three days from 9 A.M to 5 P.M GST.

COY18 does not guarantee any form of funding to its participating delegates nor is it able to provide any form of financial support at the given moment.

However, the team is actively pursuing opportunities and will inform our delegates if the situation changes. In the meantime, we encourage all attendees to reach out to local organizations, governments, and embassies to ensure that they have exhausted all possible avenues.

To that end, we highly encourage you to contact your respective Country Contact Point (CCP) through this link as they would be best suited to mobilize local resources for your participation.

This year, COY18 received around 4,000 interested applicants, all with strong profiles and qualifications. The COY18 co-hosts and volunteers have worked diligently with the YOUNGO Liaisons and YOUNGO Selection Committee to select around 800 delegates to attend COY18. The selection process was based on an agreed upon rubric that assess:

• Motivation – does the application present significant goals and interests to attend the conference

• Experience – does the applicant have experience in youth empowerment or climate change?

• Community empowerment – does the application showcase a clear plan to leverage COY for community empowerment? Additional points if it enables marginalized communities

• Quality of application – Did the applicant showcase clear effort in completing their application? Was there any plagiarism?

A second filtration round was made to ensure a representative demographic at COY18 with at least one delegate from each country that has applied. In total, we were able to accept around 174 countries tentatively, but we are still awaiting the delegates' confirmation. In addition to that, the team factored in a quota to ensure that COY18 is fairly considering local and international youth, COY18 volunteers / CCPs, and delegates from low-income communities.

Our accepted delegates were given until the 31st of October to confirm their attendance, after which, we will fill in the vacant spots with waitlisted delegates. Once this process is finalized, we will have the full list of accepted delegates for COY18.

In the end, the selection process was extremely competitive and multidimensional and bears no reflection on the competence of the applicant as an individual or young climate advocate.

While we greatly value and acknowledge the time and effort COY18’s selected volunteers have contributed to the event, being a volunteer / CCP to COY18 does not in any way guarantee their selection to participate in the event in person. This is due to limitations in accommodating such a large number of volunteers while also extending a fair chance to all applicants and ensuring a representative demographic within our delegates.

In the end, the COY18 organizing team is committed to a fair and representative selection process. That said, while COY18 volunteers and CCPs have been given additional points for their support, the selection process takes several other factors into account.

The COY18 co-hosts and volunteers have worked diligently with the YOUNGO Liaisons and Selection Committee to select around 800 delegates to attend COY18. The selection process was based on an agreed-upon rubric that assess:

• Motivation – does the application present significant goals and interests to attend the conference?

• Experience – does the applicant have experience in youth empowerment or climate change

• Community empowerment – does the application showcase a clear plan to leverage COY for community empowerment? Additional points if it enables marginalized communities

• Quality of application – Did the applicant showcase clear effort in completing their application? Was there any plagiarism?

A second filtration round was made to ensure a representative demographic at COY18 where at least one delegate from each country that has applied is selected. In total, we were able to accept around 174 countries tentatively, but we are still awaiting the delegates' confirmation.

In addition to that, the team factored in a quota to ensure that COY18 is fairly considering local and international youth, COY18 volunteers / CCPs, and delegates from low-income communities.

In the end, the selection process was extremely competitive and multidimensional and bears no reflection on your competence as an individual or young climate advocate.

Accepted delegates have been given a confirmation form to fill that will facilitate their official acceptance and visa support letter (if required). Please be sure to complete the form by the 31st of October at most.

Once you complete the form, the team should get back to you with the documents at the earliest.

The COY18 organizing team is committed to a fair and representative selection process. However, the selection of delegates has been finalized and we cannot provide any more badges. The filtration of COY18’s delegate applications was multidimensional to ensure its inclusivity and fairness to all interested youth.

Regretfully, the pool of selected and waitlisted delegates is final and will not be altered. For more information on the selection process, kindly reference the FAQ “Why was I not accepted as a delegate for COY18 despite my qualifications?”.

The COY18 agenda ready - view it here!

coy18uae.org/coy18agenda

Yes, you could fill in the confirmation form with an outdated passport if you are currently in the process of renewing it.

However, kindly note that an expired passport may hinder your visa issuance process should you require one.

It is the delegate’s sole responsibility to ensure that they have all the valid documents they need in time for their COY18 participation.

All food provided at COY18 will be Halal. Similarly, most food options available in the UAE are Halal.

Halal is a term signifying that the food is, in its nature and through its preparation, in accordance with Islamic law. It is a concept similar to Kosher.

You can read more on UAE’s Halal System here.

Knowledge partners will be given day passes to be able to access the Conference to conduct their sessions. More information will be communicated directly to those selected.

COY and COP are parallel yet separate events. COP is organized by the UNFCCC and the hosting country, while COY is organized by YOUNGO (the official youth and children constituency to the UNFCCC) and selected local co-hosts.

While the events build on each other, being registered into one conference does not guarantee registration into the other conference.

It is also important to highlight the difference in capacity between the two conferences. COP could generally accommodate a much larger attendance than COY.

While we appreciate the determination for growth and development within our applicants, we unfortunately can not provide personalized feedback to each rejected application given the sheer volume of applicants reviewed (around 4,000), but if given the opportunity we are open to discussing our rubric and point system. To better understand the filtration process for COY18 delegates, we advise you to reference the FAQ “Why was I not accepted as a delegate for COY18 despite my qualifications?”.

It is up to the delegates to ultimately decide when they should arrive and depart the UAE.

It could be good practice to arrive on the 25th and depart on the 29th of November - if you do not plan to attend COP28.

While Arabic is the official language of the United Arab Emirates, English is widely used and spoken in the country.

More on spoken languages here.