(CA National Observer) Meet The Young Climate Leaders Helping To Set The COP26 Agenda

National Observer - Cloe Logan

Vancouver-based youth climate activist Shakti Ramkumar is heading to Milan for the Youth4Climate summit ahead of COP26. Photo submitted by Shakti Ramkumar

In less than a week’s time, Shakti Ramkumar will be in Milan, Italy, with hundreds of other young climate leaders.

The Vancouver-based youth climate activist is set to attend the Youth4Climate: Driving Ambition meeting, which takes place Sept. 28 to 30 in advance of COP26.

Participants will form working groups and discuss proposals on climate initiatives, including ways to create jobs in renewable energy, push countries to prioritize low-carbon action, and urge the fashion industry to reduce its climate footprint. Conference results will be shared with participants and decision-makers attending COP26, and inform the negotiation process at the conference.

It’s not Ramkumar’s first climate conference (she attended COP25 in Madrid, Spain), but this meeting feels especially important. She said she has heard concerns from other attendees (she’s in a WhatsApp group with over 300 of them) about not being able to make it to the event.

Equity at COP26 has been centre stage — many worry the lack of access to COVID-19 vaccines and the expense of quarantine and travel for delegates from many countries mean the Glasgow-based event won’t be as fair or effective as it should be.

“I feel like before COVID, I would have been just like 100 per cent excited... This year, I feel 70 per cent excited, still very excited, but I also feel a bigger sense of responsibility this year than any other year, just recognizing how inequitable travelling is right now,” she said.

“And these conference spaces have always been a privileged basin because so few people can attend compared to the number of people who are advocating on the ground for these issues.”

With COP26 being called our “last hope” for meeting the world’s Paris Agreement goal, the role of youth is more important than ever. Canada’s National Observer caught up with some of the attendees and asked them for their thoughts on Youth4Climate: Driving Ambition and the larger picture of COP26.

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Photo submitted by Shakti Ramkumar

Shakti Ramkumar, 25, Vancouver
Director of communications and policy at Student Energy

The UN climate conference in November is being called our “last hope” to meet our Paris Agreement targets, and the role of youth is more important than ever. Here's what attendees at the upcoming #Youth4Climate are hoping to see at #COP26.

It’s the first time a youth summit is taking place before a UN climate conference, which is important, said Ramkumar.

“(In previous years), before anyone even arrived within that space, before the youth delegations even set foot in COP, a lot of the big decisions and the parameters for the discussion (had) already been set,” she explained.

It makes this timeline exciting, she said, and leaves her hopeful that youth perspectives will be worked into the COP26 agenda — something she and other delegates believe was lacking in the past.

Coming off the heels of a federal election makes Youth4Climate: Driving Ambition all the more timely for Ramkumar, who is concerned Canada might show up at COP26 without a clear plan to meet its Paris targets. Those feelings are coupled with questions around the government needing to support youth-led climate action and provide financial support for youth in the clean energy sector.

“In the Canadian youth groups I'm tapped into, there's frustration that front-line Indigenous climate activists have not been sufficiently heard by any party during this election, and that there's still not a clear pathway to actually meeting our targets,” she said.

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Photo submitted by Louise Mabulo

Louise Mabulo, 23, Philippines
Founder of The Cacao Project
UN Young Champion of the Earth

Louise Mabulo has seen and felt the climate crisis first-hand. Intensifying storms have affected her region in the Philippines, where the country sees an average of 20 typhoons each year.

For the chef, farmer, and entrepreneur, her lived experience ties into her climate advocacy. She started The Cacao Project, which connects farmers in her home city of San Fernando with resilient, long-term, and profitable crops, such as cacao seedlings, after typhoon Nock-ten destroyed over 80 per cent of permeable land in the area in 2016.

“... I can share my own experiences as someone who has witnessed the depth and devastation of the climate crisis first-hand in my region through the intensifying typhoons which my country experiences,” she said.

When thinking about the future of youth and climate conferences, Mabulo hopes there is an opportunity to expand ongoing dialogues, discussions, and working groups with youth year-round through the UN.

“... It is only natural that there is too much ground to cover on a topic as expansive as climate in a yearly event,” she said.

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Photo submitted by Jhannel Tomlinson

Jhannel Tomlinson, 29, Jamaica
Co-founder of GirlsCARE

The event will serve as a place where young people can share their experiences, as well as climate goals they’d like to see reached, explained Jhannel Tomlinson, who served as the Jamaican youth delegate both for COP24 in Poland and COP25 in Madrid.

The 29-year-old is a PhD candidate in the department of geography and geology at the University of the West Indies whose work has focused on climate change adaptation in rural Jamaican communities. She sees the event as a vital way to bridge the gap between children and decision-makers.

“The young people of tomorrow will inherit a world that they didn’t create,” she said.

“Being the generation closest to them, it is important for us as youth to be able to advocate for the protection of the Earth, the conservation of resources, environmental justice for the vulnerable, and for economies that are less premised on extractive industries.”

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Photo submitted by Nisreen Elsaim

Nisreen Elsaim, 26, Sudan
Chair of the UN Secretary General's Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change
Chair of the Sudan Youth Organization on Climate Change

When Nisreen Elsaim talks about what she wants to see come from the Youth4Climate meeting, as well as COP26, she says “intergenerational justice” is key.

“We are talking about climate impacts that will actually affect people, young people specifically, 20 years later, 15 years later, 10 years later,” she said.

“Even now, a lot of young people around the world are impacted by climate change.”

Elsaim hopes concrete plans to cut back on emissions and support communities dealing with climate change come out of the youth-focused event. She also wants to see a shift in the climate change movement towards taking young people seriously.

“They should not also be treated as a decoration ... we have our knowledge, we (are) professional, we should get invited to different events,” she said.

“(It should be) according to that, to what we can actually add to the event, not just to make it more diverse or just say that they have youth representation.”

Links

• (Reuters) World's Youth Take To The Streets Again To Battle Climate Change
• (The Guardian) Young Global Climate Strikers Vow Change Is Coming – From The Streets
• A Year Of Resistance: How Youth Protests Shaped The Discussion On Climate Change
• Young people resume global climate strikes calling for urgent action
• Young climate activists call for EU to radically reform farming sector
• School climate strikers join Valentine's Day protests across world
• Hundreds of thousands of students join global climate strikes
• (AU ABC) School Strike 4 Climate: Thousands Of Young Australians Call For Urgent Action On Climate Change
• Greta Thunberg Effect: People Familiar With Young Climate Activist May Be More Likely To Act
• ‘Hypocrites And Greenwash’: Greta Thunberg Blasts Leaders Over Climate Crisis
• Another Two Years Lost To Climate Inaction, Says Greta Thunberg

(Reuters) World's Youth Take To The Streets Again To Battle Climate Change

Reuters - Kate Abnett

Summary Largest global climate protest since pandemic Strike takes place weeks before COP26 summit Hundreds of thousands protest in Germany alone, organisers say 'No political party is doing close to enough', Thunberg says

BRUSSELS - Young people around the world took to the streets on Friday to demand urgent action to avert disastrous climate change, in their largest protest since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The strike takes place five weeks before the U.N. COP26 summit, which aims to secure more ambitious climate action from world leaders to drastically cut the greenhouse gas emissions heating the planet.

"The concentration of CO2 in the sky hasn't been this high for at least 3 million years," Swedish activist Greta Thunberg told a crowd of thousands of protesters in the German capital.

"It is clearer than ever that no political party is doing close to enough."

Demonstrations were planned in more than 1,500 locations by youth movement Fridays for Future, kicking off in Asia with small-scale demonstrations in the Philippines and Bangladesh, and spreading throughout the day to European cities including Warsaw, Turin and Berlin.

"Everyone is talking about making promises, but nobody keeps their promise. We want more action," said Farzana Faruk Jhumu, 22, a youth climate activist in Dhaka, Bangladesh. "We want the work, not just the promises."

A landmark U.N. climate science report in August warned that human activity has already locked in climate disruptions for decades - but that rapid, large-scale action to reduce emissions could still stave off some of the most destructive impacts. read more

So far, governments do not plan to cut emissions anywhere near fast enough to do that.

Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg attends the Global Climate Strike of the movement Fridays for Future in Berlin, Germany, September 24, 2021. REUTERS/Christian Mang
More images: 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

The United Nations said last week that countries' commitments would see global emissions increase to be 16% higher in 2030 than they were in 2010 - far off the 45% reduction by 2030 needed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

"We are here because we are saying a loud 'no' to what is happening in Poland," said Dominika Lasota, 19, a youth activist at a protest in Warsaw, Poland. "Our government has for years been blocking any sort of climate politics and ignores our demands for a safe future."

Friday's strike marked the in-person return of the youth climate protests that in 2019 drew more than six million people onto the streets, before the COVID-19 pandemic largely halted the mass gatherings and pushed much of the action online.

Yusuf Baluch, 17, a youth activist in the Pakistani province of Balochistan, said the return to in-person events was vital to force leaders to tackle the planetary crisis.

"Last time it was digital and nobody was paying attention to us," he said.

But with access to COVID-19 vaccines still highly uneven around the world, activists in some poorer countries said they would only hold symbolic actions with only a handful of people.

"In the global north, people are getting vaccinated so they might be out in huge quantities. But in the global south, we are still limited," Baluch said.>

The world's youth take to the streets in #FridaysForFuture protests to demand urgent action to avert climate change, in their largest protest since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. More photos: https://t.co/xBTVe4Yz9D pic.twitter.com/QVVPWvqXrf

— Reuters Pictures (@reuterspictures) September 24, 2021

Links

• (The Guardian) Young Global Climate Strikers Vow Change Is Coming – From The Streets
• (CA National Observer) Meet The Young Climate Leaders Helping To Set The COP26 Agenda
• A Year Of Resistance: How Youth Protests Shaped The Discussion On Climate Change
• Young people resume global climate strikes calling for urgent action
• Young climate activists call for EU to radically reform farming sector
• School climate strikers join Valentine's Day protests across world
• Hundreds of thousands of students join global climate strikes
• (AU ABC) School Strike 4 Climate: Thousands Of Young Australians Call For Urgent Action On Climate Change
• Greta Thunberg Effect: People Familiar With Young Climate Activist May Be More Likely To Act
• ‘Hypocrites And Greenwash’: Greta Thunberg Blasts Leaders Over Climate Crisis
• Another Two Years Lost To Climate Inaction, Says Greta Thunberg
• U.N. climate change report sounds 'code red for humanity'

Fridays For Future Global Climate Strike – In Pictures

The Guardian

Activists marched on cities around the world to demand action on climate change before Cop26 in Glasgow

Greta Thunberg, centre, and the German climate activist Luisa Neubauer (centre left) attend the march in Berlin. Photograph: Filip Singer/EPA

Fridays for Future movement at Kadikoy district of Istanbul. Photograph: Ozan Köse/AFP/Getty Images

Young activists make their feelings known in London. Photograph: David Cliff/AP

Czech protestors take to the streets of Prague. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

A young woman holds up a poster while taking part in the climate strike in Lisbon, Portugal. Photograph: Armando Franca/AP

The Red Rebels performance group join hundreds of people taking part in a global climate protest in Cape Town, South Africa. Photograph: Rodger Bosch/AFP/Getty

Polish students demonstrate in Warsaw. Photograph: Kacper Pempel/Reuters

The demonstration in Glasgow was echoed in Stirling, Ullapool and a rally outside the Scottish parliament. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty

People take part in the Fridays for Future protest in Berlin, Germany. Photograph: Christian Mang/Reuters

The message from Glasgow, Scotland. Photograph: Ewan Bootman/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock

Banners in Warsaw, Poland. Photograph: Radek Pietruszka/EPA

Students in Rome play out a protest. Photograph: Antonio Masiello/Getty

Activists march through Westminster, London, to demand politicians act on climate change promises. Photograph: David Cliff/AP

An environmental activist puts a banner on a police barricade during the Fridays for Future strike in New Delhi, India. Photograph: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images

Students call for action against climate change in Rome, Italy. Photograph: Antonio Masiello/Getty

People sit on a bench next to a banner in Bristol, UK. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA

Indian activists take part in the climate strike in Kolkata, India. Photograph: Piyal Adhikary/EPA

Protesters in Naples, Italy. Photograph: Cesare Abbate/EPA

A balloon resembling the CDU party chairman, Armin Laschet, flies in front of the chancellery in Berlin. Photograph: Clemens Bilan/EPA

Austrian students take to the streets in Vienna. Photograph: Leonhard Föger/Reuters

Greta Thunberg speaks in front of the Reichstag in Berlin. Photograph: Maja Hitij/Getty

Links

• (Reuters) World's Youth Take To The Streets Again To Battle Climate Change
• (The Guardian) Young Global Climate Strikers Vow Change Is Coming – From The Streets
• (CA National Observer) Meet The Young Climate Leaders Helping To Set The COP26 Agenda
• A Year Of Resistance: How Youth Protests Shaped The Discussion On Climate Change
• Young people resume global climate strikes calling for urgent action
• Young climate activists call for EU to radically reform farming sector
• School climate strikers join Valentine's Day protests across world
• Hundreds of thousands of students join global climate strikes
• (AU ABC) School Strike 4 Climate: Thousands Of Young Australians Call For Urgent Action On Climate Change
• Greta Thunberg Effect: People Familiar With Young Climate Activist May Be More Likely To Act
• ‘Hypocrites And Greenwash’: Greta Thunberg Blasts Leaders Over Climate Crisis
• Another Two Years Lost To Climate Inaction, Says Greta Thunberg