The Founder and Executive Director of the National Youth Climate Action Network of Namibia, Toini Amutenya, has called on the youth to establish fora and join networks in their respective communities that speak to the climate change agenda.

She made the call in an interview with nbc News at the National Youth Climate Change Summit in Windhoek.

The Summit aims to give youth a platform to talk about how their lives are affected by climate change.

"The main idea is to bring youth together to deliberate on issues around climate change and to come up with solutions and action plans, as well as to raise our demand towards what we want to see the outcome of the NDC and its contribution in terms of the youth can be. The major outcome of this summit is to develop the nation's youth statement on climate change."

Amutenya revealed that the youth are trying to find a space in the development of policies and frameworks, especially the appointed Nationally Determined Contributions.

"We are trying to see within the NDCs what roles we can play. So the excitement is there, the youth want to sit in the seats and be recognised as stakeholders. So it's just about excising the forms, being aware of what is going on, forming part of the policies and frameworks that are out there, and taking up seats as stakeholders, and we actually, at this point, recognise the key stakeholders in this kind of framework."

The chairperson of the Okahandja Youth Forum, Willem Veiko, emphasised the need for youth to move towards finding solutions to climate change and make use of available resources.

"It always has been talk, and now this summit is one of those spearheading examples to say it's enough talk, information, and action time now, so where by the NDC are put out and they have the different project outlines that are trying to reach by 2025 to say as young people, these are the contributing factors that we can do, they have mitigating projects that are put out already."

Veiko encouraged the need to build the capacity of young people to better tackle climate change issues.