Youth Negotiations Training

10th October 2026

Written by Harveet Singh Purewal, GYBN UK

A big part of what GYBN UK does is representing youth on the international stage in global negotiations under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). However, the CBD also has ‘sister’ conventions: the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on climate change and UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) – collectively known as the three Rio Conventions after the location they were adopted.

Influencing and changing global-level policy requires an understanding of the UN negotiation processes and how to engage. This is where the Commonwealth Youth Multilateral Negotiations Training programme comes in! Read this blog post to find out more...

The youth perspective in international policy

Meaningfully including youth voices and perspectives from underrepresented groups in biodiversity decision-making is enshrined in the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) as Target 22. To shape international discussions on biodiversity, it is important for young people to have knowledge of UN multilateral negotiations and how they work.

The Commonwealth Secretariat which supports the work of the Commonwealth, a collection of countries where over 60% of people are under 30, runs a negotiation training programme to empower youth to meaningfully engage in UN environmental negotiations across the three Rio Conventions, which GYBN UK got to participate in!

Day 1 – learning the basics:

The programme brought together 36 young people from 24 Commonwealth countries on a three day crash course to learn how to engage in global negotiations and be young diplomats and youth negotiators for our countries.

After some opening remarks on the first day by the Australian Deputy High Commissioner, the Turkish High Commissioner and the Youth Climate Champion for climate COP31, we got straight into the programme learning all about the fundamentals of each of the conventions and the science behind biodiversity loss, climate change and desertification. This provided a common understanding of the historical context of each convention, each of which tackle their respective issues differently and have different institutional arrangements and mechanisms. We also learnt about previous COPs for each convention, including milestone COPs such as CBD COP15, where the GBF was adopted.

A large section of the day was spent learning how COP outcome texts - the final decisions that Parties (countries) have agreed upon - are structured such as the preamble which introduces the topic and context vs the operative text which describes what decisions have been made, as well as how language can be used to strengthen or weaken an outcome. This involved understanding a lot of grammar, punctuation, and jargon (good resource linked below!)

Day 2 – being youth negotiators:

As young negotiators and advocates it was important to learn how to be a diplomat and negotiate in these contexts. At its core, negotiation involves finding an adequate solution to solve a problem and build consensus. And trying to build consensus amongst almost 200 countries to the CBD is difficult when each country has its own priorities, which is where the flexible language we learnt yesterday comes in. The morning’s sessions emphasised the importance of coalition-building in diplomacy and negotiations, as coalitions provide more weight behind a statement than a single country.

As part of learning how diplomacy works, we learnt how to understand our national position i.e. what a country’s priorities and context is going into a negotiation to draft and deliver an intervention (a statement) as part of the negotiation process. This involved learning what winning vs losing looks like for each country, and how that differs.

Day 3 – putting into practice:

Arguments around finance tend to gridlock negotiations under each Rio Convention, and so the third day was spent learning how the financial mechanism worked under each convention and the key players involved. We then applied that and everything else we learnt over the previous two days in a mock negotiation where each of us represented countries, and we had to negotiate on a finance topic which was negotiated at UNFCCC COP29. This opportunity allowed us to put everything we learnt into practice, from understanding our own national interests, to drafting interventions, forming coalitions, and finding landing zones on a sensitive topic which was acceptable to each of our countries. It involved a lot of huddles and going back and forth over small details or one or two words – a pretty accurate simulation of climate negotiations I have observed in the past!

My reflections:

After taking part in a simulated negotiation, I definitely gained a newfound appreciation for the dedication and effort that goes towards negotiating a global outcome amongst nearly 200 countries. The training helped me understand the dynamics of global negotiations and how diplomacy works in real life, often requiring human effort and informal side chats. It also gave me the necessary knowledge to track negotiations at upcoming COPs this year and understand the political dynamics a bit more. Overall, the training also reinforced my belief that global negotiations require civil society, including youth, to hold governments accountable, preventing backsliding on commitments and keeping up ambition. Global negotiations require everyone to speak up, especially on a global issue as big as biodiversity loss!

If you are interested in engaging with negotiations, international biodiversity policy and more check out these resources in addition to those on the GYBN website already:

To understand a lot of the jargon and punctuation in international policy decision documents and why minor words matter in these contexts: "Comma but Differentiated Responsibilities: Punctuation and 30 Other Ways..." by Susan Biniaz

The Global Biodiversity Framework: Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

written by Harveet Singh Purewal

GYBN UK

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse