Shaheer Ahmed
The youngest UN climate advisor tells BBC News in Egypt that young people are more influential than ever in the UN climate conference. Climate activists involving the activists from Pakistan are following the footpaths of Greta Thunberg which indeed is a positive initiative in removing carbon emissions.
Sophia Kianni claims, “Young people are definitely shaping outcomes here at COP27.”
Greta Thunberg, a Swedish activist, decided to miss the Sharm el-Sheikh summit because, in her words, it was a “greenwashing” event. Thus, the main purpose of Greta to emerge was to highlight the importance of climate change which now climate activists are following.
In contrast, young people in nations particularly vulnerable to climate change report “calling it out” from the inside.
Ugandan climate campaigner Vanessa Nakate will deliver a speech on Tuesday in which she will call on governments to clean their “oil-stained” hands. Ministers from the G20 countries will hear her call for an end to the “moral and economic madness” of continuing to subsidize fossil fuels and put short-term politics first.
Activists from impoverished nations have echoed Thunberg’s concerns that the presence of so many oil and gas delegates has tainted COP.
One of the featured presenters in the Children and Youth Pavilion is Ayisha Siddiqa, a young Pakistani woman who is currently 23 years old. This room is the first of its kind, and it served as the location of an official meeting between youth activists and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres only last week.
Ayisha is pleased with the location, which is one of the busiest during COP27, with activists vying for floor space to sit and talk.
We’re putting this on for the kids. She notes that “there is no corporate branding everywhere, unlike in government and business areas.”
According to her, those who ask about Hurricane Greta are missing the boat on the seriousness of climate change. In her native nation of Pakistan, terrible floods this summer claimed the lives of 1,700 people. For humans, the end of the planet has finally arrived. The stakes are too great for me to give up on hope, she adds.
