(UNITED NATIONS) By Bünyamin Sürmeli – Intensive meetings for the United Nations Sustainability Week, which runs from April 15-19, have been underway for three days. The main topics of the sustainability agenda, which will continue throughout the week, come back to climate change.

Today, Mediterranean countries gathered at the United Nations Security Meeting and held a session on “The Role of Youth in Addressing Security Challenges in the Mediterranean”.

UN Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo addressed the ambassadors in the Security Council, saying: “The potential and opportunity for renewal that young people represent means that they must be part of the broader debates that shape our societies.”

DiCarlo said that since young people make up 55 percent of the population in the southern and eastern Mediterranean, their voices cannot be ignored.

Continuing her speech, DiCarlo noted that the climate crisis is exacerbating the challenges faced by youth in the Mediterranean, especially as the region is warming about 20 percent faster than the global average.

“Young women are often at the forefront of these movements, advocating for a gender perspective at all stages of policy and decision-making on climate risks,” DiCarlo said, stressing the importance of youth-led climate action and citing their active participation in international forums such as the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings.

The Council, convened by Malta in its capacity as Chair of the 15-member Council for the month of April, has been meeting on key issues in the Mediterranean region, highlighting political instability, conflict, terrorism, climate change, irregular migration and socio-economic dispari