Youths can also set agenda
Much has been written and told about climate change impact, mitigation and adaptation over more than a couple of months since COP15 held in December, 09 in Copenhagen. But not much about the role of youth in the efforts.
Whether we could have a fair Accord of the conference or not, in the end, we have learned and understood that to combat climate change, which will ultimately force each country to worry about its own existence, there are numerous issues need to be resolved, not just among the nations but internally within communities and societies. And here, the youths can play a strong role in raising awareness and shouldering the burden of policymakers to fight and live through this greatest phenomenon mankind is facing today.
We -- Zia and Sumaiya as British Council's International Climate Champions, Nazzina as the Project Manager of this programme and Nabin representing South Asian Youth and Youth in Action on Climate (YAC) -- were few young people involved in climate change works represented Bangladeshi youths in this conference, bringing in enormous experience of participating in such a large scale event.
We are here, in Bangladesh, and absolutely eager to engage with youths of Bangladesh to come forward to be active in voicing our concerns to global communities and leaders
Here in this article, we are sharing our story which we hope will motivate young Bangladeshis as there are some very big opportunities available to lead youth movements in our region and even in some cases globally if we all come forward, join hands and work together.
Nabin was first among us to arrive in Copenhagen and attend global Conference of Youths (COY) on 5-6 December 2009 at the Copenhagen University. The objective of the conference was to develop the capacity of youth participants through a number of workshops, seminars and presentations. Some of the experienced youths from various nations shared their knowledge of attending previous COP and conferences on climate change which added value to the learning of the young people attending first time in COP15. Kumi Naidoo, Chair of Greenpeace, inspired the youths and said that they were not the future leaders, they were leaders now. In COY, youths from various regions gathered together and planned their actions around COP15 to ensure a real and fair deal is sealed.
For the first time, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) gave a legal status to youth constituency in COP15 and the body of this constituency is known as YOUNGO which coordinated all the youth related activities and events at COP15. The British Council and South Asian Youth network worked closely with YOUNGO to ensure maximum participation of their youth delegation to raise their voice around various climate change related concerns.
The British Council Bangladesh team arrived in Copenhagen on 7th December. The British Council booth promoted active participations of youths through their community based projects in more than 30 countries and put its International Climate Champions in groups such as governance and policy, business and media to visit various events and talks to gather information and share their experience later in the day.
In this conference, we were fortunate to meet and hear many high profile individuals doing their part to bring a change. One of these stars had to be the President of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, who mesmerised his audience with such strong implications blended with emotions on where we, as mankind, are heading towards. Yes we agree that he marred his strong presence by clapping for the Copenhagen Accord, which in many ways, did not represent all the countries democratically and has issues around financial responsibilities of carbon emitters and countries necessitated to adapt, still he strongly told the stories of vulnerable people across the world.
And that led us to our interaction with IPCC Chair Dr Rajendra Pachauri. We asked about his views on politically binding agreement and that as youths who are the ultimate owners of the decisions that today's global leaders make, he clearly said our world leaders must act fast on an agreement, even if it's politically binding, and ensure that it is fair and credible for all countries. However, the first priority is to set a target to reduce Greenhouse Gas emission significantly by 2020, not 2050.
He reflected on urgency to have ourselves prepared to fight climate change issue at the earliest and here, and that we must act together. A politically binding agreement could work at some level for the time being if it clearly narrates finance, technology transfer and GHG emission cut by developed nations. In the end, we saw, as it's mentioned earlier, a Copenhagen Accord which unfortunately did not set any clear direction to resolve monetary issues around adaptation or how technologically advanced nations could share their green inventions with fast developing and developing nations to help them reduce GHG emission. However, the Accord emphasised on countries, regardless of their status, come forward to fight deforestation and thought to recognise importance of having a target to keep global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius.
There were a few who supported us enormously and believed that youths through the power of their voices and concerns could make a difference. One of them was the Chair of All Party Parliamentary Committee on Climate Change Saber Hossain Chowdhury MP. His presence at COP15 felt strong because he was there for everyone and engaged with everyone in a best possible way which is listening to the voices of people, including the young ones who brought in stories and experiences to share. And we had a great opportunity to share pleasantries with the State Minister for Environment and Forest at the 'Bangladesh Night' organised by Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies but we wished to have more meaningful discussion. Our counterparts from some other countries helped their government delegation to write papers and campaigned for their national causes in important events and this is something our policymakers could consider to add to their agenda.
In Bangladesh, we need to recognise that youths are a source of power which could be utilised positively to help thrive a nation's prosperity and sustainability. Youths here can think, are innovative and can set agenda through visionary thoughts; they just need attention through which the leaders could value their existence and receive guidance to help themselves shape up their thoughts into fruitful outcomes. Here, many of our leaders in various sectors -- from policymaking to education to businesses -- could come forward and listen to the youths and help them to be part of this national cause of fighting climate change.
Comments