From COP30 Negotiation Rooms to the Gobi Desert

By Tselmeg Urtnasan, Co-Founder of Climate Mongolia

How youth leadership turned COP30 outcomes into action for Mongolia’s climate-vulnerable communities

Credit: Singapore Pavilion at COP30

This year marked a milestone in my journey as a youth climate advocate from Mongolia. In 2025, I was selected by the Government of Mongolia to serve as a negotiator at COP30 in Brazil, with support from the Youth Negotiators Academy and the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Inside the negotiation rooms at COP30, I was working on some of the most consequential tracks of the conference, including the Global Goal on Adaptation and the UAE Just Transition Work Programme.

I contributed to negotiations that led to the adoption of the Belém Adaptation Indicators and the Just Transition mechanism, outcomes that will shape how countries measure resilience and ensure justice in the global climate transition. My role involved analyzing draft decision texts, proposing negotiation language, and drafting interventions aligned with Mongolia’s national priorities. I also engaged with the newly established Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) negotiating group, a historic step for the 32 landlocked countries to collectively advance their unique vulnerabilities and priorities within the UNFCCC process.

Credit: Singapore Pavilion at COP30

This moment at COP did not happen in isolation. My journey was shaped by YECAP and years of grassroots-level work. As a YECAP Shakers Fellow, I joined a regional programme that strengthened my practical skills in implementation design-thinking, project development, partnership-building, and fundraising. With this support, I was able to launch and strengthen a grassroots adaptation initiative with farmers and nomadic communities in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, one of the country’s most climate-vulnerable regions, where water scarcity, land degradation, and declining agricultural productivity are already transforming daily life.

My preparation for COP30 was further strengthened through the Climate Policy Innovators Youth Camp in Bangkok in February 2025, jointly organized by UNFCCC Regional Collaboration Centre for Asia and the Pacific, UNDP, UNICEF, and YECAP. The camp offered hands-on simulations of climate negotiations and deepened my understanding of National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). For me, it was a critical platform where global climate language became tangible, connected directly to national policy choices and implementation pathways.

Credit: UNFCCC Webcast

As Mongolia now prepares for its Presidency of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) COP17, one of my lessons learned from COP is that negotiation’s true value lies in the implementation. Youth have an important role not only at the negotiation table, but in bringing global decisions back to communities and ensuring they translate into real change. Building on my COP experience, technical training, and grassroots work, I am committed to continuing this bridge-building role by connecting international outcomes with national priorities and community realities in the lead-up to COP17 and beyond.