Hyderabad: Two Class 10 students from Hyderabad Public School, Greeshma Kolichelimi and Arjun, will represent India in the CoP-29 conference beginning on Monday in Baku, Azerbaijan. They are part of a programme called Centre for Global Education, and its initiative called 'Decarbonise'.
As part of this initiative, they will be representing India as global leads accredited by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, at the summit. After engaging in months of online collaboration and learning, more than 10,000 students from over 75 countries met over a weekend to write the annual manifesto called 'Decarbonise Global Child Climate Manifesto'.
"The manifesto presents our demands of creating a world without the devastating impact of climate change," said Greeshma. "At the summit, my primary role is to amplify youth voices and present this manifesto on the global stage. As future inheritors of this planet, I believe its important for our perspectives to be heard and valued in shaping a more sustainable future," she added.
Asked what encouraged them to climate advocacy, Arjun replied, "Being from Kerala, I’ve witnessed the worsening floods, unpredictable monsoons, and changing agricultural patterns impacting communities. Seeing these climate effects firsthand made me realise the urgency of taking action."
Greeshma said that her "obsession" with climate advocacy sprang out of anxiety. "I started with climate newsletters in the school as part of a programme and I like researching and learning about climate. It kind of gave me a lot of anxiety and I think this initiative gave me a chance to change this eco-anxiety into eco-action," she said.
The students held the view that youth, which is the future of the world, was not given a seat at the table when it came decision making. "In our manifesto, we focus on the four priority areas. First is global policy, followed by climate education. Third is local action, which we can do in our own communities, our schools and our countries. And last is communication. I feel there's a huge gap between climate education and communication. It's mostly inducing climate anxiety. We want to get solutions out there, and make them more reachable to people," said Greeshma.
Talking about how the global collaboration helped them grow personally and form local-level solutions, Arjun said, "Global collaboration actually opened my eyes to diverse climate challenges and solutions, especially the fact that some countries have unique youth-led strategies tailored to local issues. For me, it reinforced the importance of shared knowledge and international cooperation in addressing climate change."
Greeshma shared the example of Azerbaijan's shift from oil-based country to investment in renewable energy. "For a country whose backbone is oil, shifting to renewable energy is inspiring. In India, non-regular monsoon days lead to insufficient harvest, there is gas-chamber like air pollution, droughts and floods. We have huge reasons to make a similar shift," she said.
"As student leads, we’ll present the manifesto and do a live telecast at the CoP. We’ll also present our carbon sequestration analysis and discuss climate issues in India, along with steps we’re taking to address them, at the Ecologique Fair," said Arjun.
Greeshma shared that she wants to focus on climate education in the country. "Unless we nurture students from a young age, they will not turn into climate aware citizens in the future. Climate education in our school books right now, is presented in a very mundane manner, not relatable to the students' lives. I want to work on providing more relatable climate education," she said.
The students' geography teacher, Usha Sudhir will be accompanying them to the conference. "The programme is run by an NGO in Canada, supported by the Canadian government. They provide students the opportunity to share their opinions on the matter,” Sudhir said.
“Last year, at the Dubai conference, someone questioned the students' right to sit at the table and they responded by saying that the decisions being made today will affect them in the future. They work hard to create awareness about these issues at the school and community level. They focus on creating a net-zero and zero-waste zone in school and rainwater harvestation as well," she said.
