December 2022, New York, USA - For this year’s final external newsletter addition, the topic Key Takeaways from the COP27 - How UNITAR is contributing to preparing new leaders for the future, allowed us to reflect on how our work in New York throughout this year has left a footprint on the battle with climate change. COP 27, the 2022 UN Climate Change Conference, was held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt this year. As a representative of the training arm of the UN Community in New York, UNITAR worked hard this year to insure that our work paralleled the subjects addressed at COP27 to give the necessary tools and skills to our partners and beneficiaries to help protect our environment and build a safer future for the generations to come.

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Our partnerships with diplomats, professors, and UN delegates allows for our beneficiaries to gain expertise from experienced professionals who have worked on Climate Negotiations. For example, Ms. Jimena Leiva-Roesch, in addition to other subjects, delivered several sessions on multilateral negotiations this year that were critical to fighting climate change. Ms. Leiva-Roesch is a diplomat of 15 years who played a key role in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change negotiations and the 2030 Agenda. Her experience and knowledge sharing empowered students to become involved in the field of climate change. In July 2022, UNITAR held its annual Women in Cyber Training that brought 23 young female diplomats from all over the world to prepare them for work at the UN Headquarters, and Ms. Leiva-Roesch hosted a session on multilateral negotiations, shown on the right.

Another cornerstone project that the UNITAR team worked on this year in an e-learning course, The Concept of Sustainability. The course was created through the guidance and supervision of Ms. Paloma Duran, the director of the Sustainable Development Goals Fund and a professor at the Law School of Universitat Jaume I in Madrid, Spain. With a plan to launch in 2023, the course consists of eight self-paced modules on the topic of sustainability, allowing students the necessary time to understand and learn to apply material at a rate that is suitable for them. Climate change is addressed in the module “protecting environmental resources”. This module has a specific focus on water as a resource and discusses it in the context of human rights and climate change. This course is crucial to our efforts in preparing the new leaders because it will be accessible to anyone online and around the world.

Our local catering to an international audience gives UNITAR a platform to serve our community. Throughout 2022, UNITAR held various trainings to educate the United Nations diplomatic community and more importantly, the public on topics such as drafting resolutions, multilateral negotiations, attaining the Sustainable Development Goals, and the inner-workings of the United Nations Headquarters to prepare participants for the necessary steps and events such as conferences, ground-work, and policy making to attain climate justice.

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