Why the next generation belongs inside, not outside, climate decision-making rooms.

It started with a dream. Not a metaphorical one, a real, specific vision. I was still a student, buried in climate law textbooks and late-night strategy calls, imagining what it would be like to sit in the actual rooms where global climate decisions are made. To not just observe but contribute. To carry the weight of the future, not as rhetoric, but as a legal, technical, and moral obligation.

Now, that dream becomes reality.

This June, I will join Portugal’s delegation to the UNFCCC Climate Meetings in Bonn, at age 23. I won’t be going alone.

With me are Andreza Caldeira and Catarina Milagre, my colleagues and dear friends at Generation Resonance. We represent different fields, law, international relations, environmental law and ESG policy, but we’re united by one purpose: to bring Portugal’s intergenerational view and promise to life, and to help shape the frameworks that will define our collective climate future.

Why does this moment matter ?

Bonn is not just a checkpoint. It’s where the scaffolding for the next decade of climate policy is being built. By the time leaders gather in Belém for COP 30 this November, the foundations must be ready: a new global finance deal, clearer rules for carbon markets, and sector-specific guidance for mitigation. These decisions will not only be about numbers, they will shape whether we can deliver on the promises we’ve made. Being in the room where that work happens is a privilege. But it’s also a responsibility. Our generation will have to live within the systems being negotiated now. That changes the way we show up. We are not observers, we are stakeholders. Not voices of tomorrow, but voices of today.

Portugal’s 2021 Framework Climate Law (Lei n.º 98/2021)  was one of the first in Europe to put intergenerational equity at its core. It speaks not just about targets or deadlines, but about fairness, about who gets to shape the rules we all must follow. It gives legal grounding to what many of us feel intuitively: that those with the longest to live should have a voice in shaping what life will look like.

That idea isn’t new at the international level either. Since 2009, young people have had formal space in the UNFCCC process through YOUNGO. But what’s changing now is the depth of participation. Young negotiators are no longer side-note contributors, we’re helping draft text, shape finance frameworks, and translate technical decisions into community action within hours.

What we bring to the table

Each of us in Generation Resonance walks a different path. I come from ESG and Sustainable Finance; Andreza from fiscal and tax international law; Catarina from Energy and Just Transition. But we’re united by a mindset: we’re here to build. We bring time-horizon discipline, because in 2045, when Portugal must reach net-zero, we’ll still be working. We bring fluency in the tools of this new era, from ESG metrics to digital diplomacy. And we bring networks that can amplify outcomes quickly and powerfully. Whether it’s through youth assemblies, local campaigns or legal clinics, our job is not just to be in the room, but to make sure what happens there reaches far beyond it. This is also smart diplomacy. Portugal has a chance to show that involving young professionals is not a feel-good gesture, it’s a diplomatic asset. When countries bring future-oriented experts into negotiations, they send a message: that they’re building frameworks meant to last. That they are not exporting outdated ideas, but co-creating durable ones. And that they trust new voices enough to give them real power.

A personal mission

For me, this is more than a policy moment, it’s a dream fulfilled. I’ve spent the last years studying climate law, helping draft recommendations, organising youth networks. But there’s something different about knowing that this time, I’ll be in the corridors where the text is shaped. That this time, I’m not writing about change, I’m helping make it. I’ll go to Bonn not just as a young professional, but as a Portuguese citizen who believes that our small country can offer something big: proof that intergenerational climate governance isn’t just possible, it’s already happening. See you in Bonn, with Portuguese “garra”.

João Maria Botelho – Forbes Under30 in Sustainability and Social Innovation

Article 4 “a) Sustainable development, making use of natural and human resources in a balanced manner, taking into account the duties of solidarity and respect for future generations and other species that coexist on the planet”