Every Girl-child deserves an education!

WHY YOUNG PEOPLE SHOULD TAKE ACTIONS TO ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE.

Emmanuel Ify Alumona

Human activities, such as the use of fossil fuels, deforestation and unsustainable agriculture contribute to climate change, which decreases the availability of nutritious food and clean water, and destroys ecosystems and secure living environments. This leads to malnutrition, ill health and migration, rendering youth particularly vulnerable. At the same time, youth constitute the majority of the population in many countries and have an increasingly strong social and environmental awareness, which has the power to transform our societies towards a low-carbon and climate resilient future. In any case, young generations have an important role to play in saving our world being divulged by climate change.

First and foremost, the youths are the integral part of every society and should contribute, in whatever positive ways, to the development of the society. Young people, as a generation, are facing a future where they may be particularly vulnerable to the risks of projected climate impacts. At the same time, they are also well positioned to take action. In my research study, I have come to understand that youths are a critical audience that warrants increased attention in order to understand shared values and concerns. Young people exhibit relatively high levels of reported concern on climate change, but there are competing priorities for their attention and the issue remains a low priority.

Many still view climate change as primarily affecting distant places. However, the research showed a preference for a narrative that frames climate change as an issue for the “here and now” to move climate change from a future to a present day concern. Young people are cynical of, and feel alienated by, the formal political process and are turning instead to alternative forms of political action such as grassroots activism. Young people are more likely to understand, care and act on climate change if they can engage with it experientially, through some form of educational, outreach or social activity.

 I feel strongly that young people should be given the chance to understand climate change as soon as possible. This will help them deal not only with the immediate challenges facing us, but the longer term ones. It will, for example, assist them in making career choices, for some businesses will expand greatly while others will decline. It will also assist them with consumer choices, because as their understanding of climate change grows, individuals will develop new attitudes about what is appropriate and moral. Young people may even grow up in a world where the relationships between nations will shift. This may occur in parts because the tropical rainforests offer a great way of drawing carbon pollution from the air, so the poorest farmers on our planet may become crucial partners to the wealthy nations as they seek to stabilize their climate.

One of the most exciting, and immediately relevant, opportunities for young people concerns the new technologies for generating electricity, and providing transport without creating greenhouse gas pollution. In coming decades, these vital tools for stabilizing our climate will be developed and brought to market by today’s school children. And tomorrow’s economists will struggle with issues that are new to us. An entire new global market – a trade will be established, which will have broad implications for many aspects of our lives.

Climate change is a centrally important issue – not just for politicians but also for the young people. Climate Change is the issue of the millennial generation. Millennial researchers’ suggestions are increasingly driven and motivated by a sense of purpose. As the world’s greatest cities risk disappearing under water during our lifetimes, the call to save the world we know becomes more compelling. When we imagine our future, we fear a world that is thronged with climate refugees; where changing weather patterns threaten the food security of the earth’s population, which will likely reach 10 billion inhabitants by 2050; and where rising economic inequalities are exacerbated by the unequal ability of individuals in different parts of the world to adapt to climate change. While climate negotiators quibble over limiting the temperature rise to 1.5° degrees vs 2° Celsius, millennial understand that the problems of 2050 are already our problems.

The work undertaken with and by the youths is crucial to raise ambition of governments to come to an agreement on a new climate change regime by 2050. Everywhere young people are rising up and taking action to solve the issues that will be left to our generation. Over 400,000 people marched in through the streets of New York City sometime ago, in the world’s greatest climate march. More than 220 institutions have divested from fossil fuels with the help of student-led movements and the number continues to grow. Youths are suing their state and federal governments across the United States, demanding action on climate change from elected officials. Young people are flooding the streets and now they are flooding the courts to get the world to see that there is a movement on the rise and that all of us who are young are at the forefront, fighting for the solutions we need.

It’s no surprise that young people are effective organizers. Climate change is a collective action problem, a problem we’ve been trained to deal with through Facebook, Twitter and social media. The Internet—like climate change—is a great equalizer. Hashtags like #2050startsnow, the motto of Scotland's youth-oriented 2050 Climate Group, dominate the twittersphere.  As COP21 kicked off in Paris, a new youth movement called Climate Strike organized walk-outs, film screenings and art performances worldwide. Working in collaboration with strangers for things that we care about is not a foreign concept; it’s a welcome challenge.

Young people also come to the climate movement at a time when policymakers have become increasingly aware that the solution to climate change does not lie solely within governments. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) homepage features a youth portal where people can organize and share opinions. Since 2009, COPs have welcomed youth delegates to the negotiations through the YOUNGO coalition—an international network of 2,000 young people that make up the youth climate movement. Its purpose is to empower young people with the skills they need to make a difference.

Beyond organizing, young people are also putting our heads together to come to solutions about climate change. Activists from climate change ask for three simple solutions: keep fossil fuels in the ground, transition to 100% clean energy and support the victims of climate change. The Commonwealth Alliance for Climate Change distributes policy recommendations and voluntary commitments, including funding proposals to build the skills of entrepreneurial young people starting low-carbon businesses. Scotland’s youth climate group, and many like it, are organizing dialogues between youth delegations and government climate issues year-round—not just when COPs are in session. Personally, I support renewable energy through YALI Network here in Nigeria.

In the light of a collapsing world, what better time to be alive than now, because our generation gets to change the course of history… Tackling climate change requires concerted coordinated government action as well as conscious and informed efforts by individuals. Therefore, it is essential to strengthen both formal and informal education on climate change and viable lifestyles. In addition, sustainable production and consumption patterns would best be promoted and youth supported as environmental champions in their local communities. Partnerships should be developed between governments, intergovernmental, non-governmental and youth organizations for joint environmental initiatives aimed at building the capacity of youth as future leaders and driving forces behind a new climate change regime. Considerable efforts are also needed in strengthening the adaptive capability and resilience of youth in rural communities in developing countries.

More and more young people are trying to shift the paradigm in which we live to start building a desirable future for everyone regardless of their social background or they place they live. Understanding the cross-sectorial nature of what is at stake, believing in social and climate justice and fighting climate change with alternatives and positivism, this is the recipe to a new kind of activism of which young people are torch-bearers, for real!