Online course on climate action launched

MUMBAI: Engaging youths for climate and environmental stewardship, Maharashtra cabinet minister for higher and technical education Chandrakant (Dada) Patil on the occasion of Earth Hour, launched Youth Leadership for Climate Action online self-paced course through Maha Youth for Climate Action (MYCA) platform here.

The course aims to inculcate and promote climate empowerment and environmental consciousness among the youths. MYCA is a youth engagement platform for climate advocacy that is training youths for climate action planning, field implementation, reporting, and policy.

The higher and technical education department and UNICEF Maharashtra with technical support from the Centre for Environment Education (CEE) India and ACWADAM Pune have come together and designed the course.

Launching the course, Patil said. “We are witnessing untimely rainfall and heat wave at the same time. This is happening at an alarming rate making our environment more fragile. We want our young generation to understand the issue and act accordingly. The course would guide them on different elements of climate action where they can learn and disseminate the practices in the society.

Vikas Rastogi, principal secretary of the higher and technical education department highlighted three years of partnership with the UNICEF Maharashtra Office and other development partners with his department to inculcate and promote climate empowerment and action covering over 3,000 colleges, 2 million youths from 13 districts of Maharashtra across six universities.

Yusuf Kabir from UNICEF Maharashtra called for more climate-conscious youths than ‘climate anxious’.