Producing Youth as Climate Champions

With the National Government giving high priority to climate change concerns in its sustainable development mission launched on January 2, a vital step will be the Youth Climate Summit (YCS) to be held at theMAS Athena in Thulhiriya from January 20 to 22. This is based on the concept that the youth, as the leaders of tomorrow should themselves workout creative imaginative and sustainable solutions to tackle climate change concerns that prevail now and may arise later. This concept is believed to be better than the policy of the older generation working out solutions and just passing them on to the younger generation.   

According to a statement issued by the National Organisers and international partners, the global temperature is rising and clear evidence of it has been found by scientists worldwide though some unpredictable leaders such as United States President-elect Donald Trump are insisting that climate change is largely a hoax made in China. Whatever such dubious claims, the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is almost certain that humans are the main cause of current global warming. IPCC confirms that human influence on the climate system is clear and growing, with impacts observed across all continents and oceans.   

The organisers say the negative consequences of climate change will make lives of hundreds of thousands if not millions of people vulnerable mostly in developing countries including Sri Lanka. Stabilizing temperature-increase to below 2°C relative to pre-industrial levels -- as agreed upon by almost all countries at the Paris Climate Summit in December 2015 -- will require the global community to make an urgent and fundamental departure from business-as-usual trends.  

We need to be especially aware that today’s youth will be responsible for how we would be handling climate change tomorrow. The responsibility on today’s youth towards climate action is immense and they need to creatively workout a low carbon and climate resilient future. Youth need to be actively engaged at local, national and global levels in raising awareness, running educational programmes, conserving our nature, promoting renewable energy, adopting environmentally friendly practices and implementing adaption and mitigation projects, the organisers say.   

Youth Climate Summit (YCS) is a dynamic Climate Education process to empower youth and incubate Climate Action. Inspired by successful experiences of similar events in the United States pioneered by the Wild Center in New York, the summit will be the platform to present and exchange the best available, science-based information about climate change with young people in collaboration with leading climate action practitioners from the academia, government, commercial sector and civil society organizations. Through inspiration, promoting climate literacy, community engagement and youth leadership development, the Youth Climate Summit initiative is aimed at developing Youth Climate Action Champions.   

Through a competitive process 100 students from Sri Lankan universities have been selected to participate in the YCS. The Selected Climate Action initiatives of participants will then be provided with incubation support through mentorship, advocacy, networking and resource mobilization through partner organizations and experts.   

The US Embassy here is the main funding Partner while the Climate Change Secretariat of the Ministry of Environment and Mahaweli Development and the Wild Centre in New York will be the technical partners for the YCS. The Disaster Management Centre, Asia Pacific Alliance for Disaster Management Sri Lanka, Janathakshan, Sri Lanka Youth Climate Action Network (SLYCAN), Eco-V Volunteers and many corporate sector organizations are also joining hands to make this summit a success. The main organizer is the Community Resilience Center, a volunteer lead organization, dedicated to promote community capacity against challenges such as natural disasters, environmental pollution and climate change.