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United Nations Youth Climate Event

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Michele Ogilvie

Oct 31, 2023

United Kingdom

Categories:

Youth, Climate Change, Activism

This article is based on a story entitled, “'We're the last generation that can stop this': The youth activist representing the UK at climate change talks” published by Sky News in the United Kingdom, August 5, 2021.


Climate change and global warming- terms that are defining the times we live in. The associated connection between climate change and human wellbeing is increasingly visible. The threat of climate change is associated with flooding and fire, forcing people to evacuate homes, food insecurity as we also deal with the health and economic impacts of COVID-19. Fearsome. So it is encouraging to read a story from the United Kingdom about a 16-year-old activist Scottsman who recognizes and accepts the challenge that we now have a once-in-a-generation chance to set ourselves on a green, resilient, and inclusive development path. Dylan Hamilton is who has been selected to represent the United Kingdom at a United Nations youth climate event in September. The UK pledges to be carbon neutral by 2050. Dylan will be 46 years old then. The worst effects of the current climate trajectory are predicted to be experienced about that time.


About 400 young people from around the world will gather in Milan Italy in September 2021 to develop concrete proposals for consideration at COP26, the next annual United Nations climate change conference. COP stands for Conference of the Parties, and the summit will be attended by the countries that signed the 1994 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) treaty.


By the time this article is published the COP26 conference will be nearing its conclusion, and the world will be left asking, are we doing enough. Still, the story is compelling for other reasons. Our youth are our future. Yet they often have very little or no say whatsoever when it comes time to make decisions on matters that will go beyond our lifespan and into theirs. Consider holding ‘youth summits’ with school children of all ages and include children who are ‘differently enabled’ (a better term perhaps than people with a disability). Engage them. You will discover they have a voice and it is a good one. Go further and make this a regular event, annually, for example. And have a media outlet sponsor it, such as a newspaper. The media can broadcast the event and the results to a wide audience. Get a college or university involved if feasible. They can institutionalize it as an annual event and track the results over the years, identifying trends, and bringing the children turned adults back to the event in the future. It is so vitally important to get our children involved to understand global affairs and be ready to participate in them in meaningful ways. Current events classes in my youth stimulated my interest in geography, political science, history, and anthropology, passions which continue to enrich my life today. Children and teens want to express themselves in many ways. Could this be a creative way to engage your children to prepare them for a global future and to be successful?


Originally published November 9, 2021.

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0821.101.02.110921

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