The Youth Climate Summit At the United Nations

On September 20, 2019, a Friday, students from some 150 countries skipped school to participate in the largest climate protests ever. This was a huge gathering of protest considering that it started roughly a year ago, with just one teenager, Greta Thunberg, now 16, taking action.  She is among four people named as the winners of a Right Livelihood Award, also known as the "Alternative Nobel." She sat outside the Swedish parliament again and again demanding action for climate change. Later she spoke to delegates of a United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poland.
The next day, on September 21, Greta and more than 700 other young climate leaders convened at the first United Nations Youth Climate Summit. It began with Thunberg addressing the gathering. She started with a blistering attack on inaction by governments on the issue of climate change.
"For more than 30 years the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you are doing enough, when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight."
"How dare you pretend that this can be solved with business-as-usual and some technical solutions. With today's emissions levels, that remaining CO2 budget will be entirely gone in less than eight and a half years."
It takes courage and commitment to say that to world leaders.
The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres participated. Guterres was titled the "keynote listener". Usually in conferences he would be called "keynote speaker", but here his job was to listen learn from young leaders. 
Komal Karishma Kumar, a young climate activist from Fiji, participated. She came ready with a list of demands. These included the phasing out of fossil fuels and a boosting of climate education. She also demanded the inclusion of youth in policy decisions. She called upon global leaders to fulfill their commitments to the U.N. Green Climate Fund. This international agreement assists low-income countries affected by the climate crisis. Fiji is one of those nations. 
All of these commitments are necessary to fulfill the goals of the 2015 Paris Accord. At that time, 195 nations agreed to a goal of limiting global warming to less than 2° Celsius. Reaching this goal will be difficult. That is because much the world depends on burning fossil fuels such as oil and coal for energy. (Moreover, the United States of America has withdrawn from the agreement.)
Young people are now organizing and calling on those in power to act because they feel that time is limited. The longer it takes to cut greenhouse-gas emissions, the more the Earth's atmosphere will eventually warm up further. To meet global climate goals, youth activists say they need to be included in solutions. The U.N. Youth Climate Summit is one step towards increasing their involvement. 
Wanjuhi Njoroge, a climate activist in her 20s from Kenya, said that the voices of youth should not only be heard but also allowed to influence decisions on climate change. Another speaker at the summit, Nina Möger Bengtsson from Denmark, emphasized this. "We speak up in our local communities. We change our diets. We change our habits. We take to the streets", she said. 
"Yet we are not included in the formal decision-making process". Denmark has actually taken some action: it has established a national youth council with direct access to the prime minister. 
The summit also marked the launch of the Kwon-Gesh Pledge. It asks U.N. leaders to include youth in carrying out goals of the Paris Accord. This pledge is perhaps the most concrete measure to include youth in policymaking. 
The photo shows, from left, Monica Skadbor (Denmark), Nanoua Lilivau Ewekia (Tuvalu) and Anfernee Nenol Kaminaga (Marshall Islands) as they discussed the Kwon-Gesh Climate Pledge with moderator Steve Chiu at the U.N. Youth Climate Summit.(Photo Credit: G. Moran).
Many young climate leaders at the summit said they were acting to save not just their future, but also their current homes. Climate change is already disrupting the environment, with many all over the world losing their homes. 
Cristen Brown, 17, from the Hawaiian island of Oahu, pointed out: "On different parts of my island there is a lot of coastal erosion causing the roads to crumble into the sea". Erosion is just one of the many impacts she has seen near her home. She is the Hawaii State Logistics Director with the U.S. Youth Climate Strike Hawaii. "We need to fight for climate justice", she told the summit. 
"Climate justice" is a framework for thinking about equality and social issues alongside climate change. It is the poor who are most vulnerable all over the world, losing homes and livelihoods due to the havoc caused by global warming and climate change. Climate justice seeks to address this issue.
Faatupu Simeti, 24, is working to protect her country of Tuvalu. This low-lying island nation is quickly being engulfed by rising seas. As a data analyst for the little country's Department of Climate Change and Disaster, she is working to better assess the island's vulnerabilities and then to come up with solutions. 
While some places are more vulnerable to climate change than others, no place is immune. Even the very ground along the East River in New York city, on which the U.N. headquarters sits, could flood due to sea-level rise by 2100.
Young activists did not just demand action from global leaders. They also came ready with solutions and turned to other young adults for solutions. Before a panel of judges, climate leaders under 30 pitched some of their proposals to address climate change and related inequalities through technology. 
Brighton Mabasa was one of them. He is a young meteorologist, working at the South African Weather Service, near Johannesburg. He has proposed a weather app for small, rural farmers. These farmers often fail to get the climate information they need. When they do get it, he said, it is not widely understood. His app works by crowdsourcing data so that farmers can have more accurate, localized data. Farmers can use the sensors on their smartphones to collect information for use by others. In this way, the farmers become citizen scientists. 
It is not just "high tech" solutions that will solve problems triggered by a changing climate. Throughout the summit, youth climate leaders emphasized the need for political, economic solutions to address emerging crises. This was emphasized by Priyank Hirani, a young electronics engineer from India, who leads Water-to-Cloud, a project that builds platforms for monitoring river pollution in India. Hoe pointed out the fact that the greenhouse gases contributing to climate change have come mostly from wealthy countries. Yet low-income nations will feel many of the effects.
Youth leaders made it clear that they are not afraid to fight for a world where climate justice flourishes. 
The last word on the UN Youth Climate Summit has to be from 16 year old Greta Thunberg. Her photo with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres is shown. Her inaugural speech ended with the following words: "You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us I say we will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now, is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not."
-Compiled from several sources; pictures from UN and Science News for Students.
- (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)