Twenty young women from Chennai handpicked for climate change initiatives

They will undergo a 10-month mentorship programme, which may be extended to other cities in Tamil Nadu

Twenty young women from Chennai are up against a steep challenge: Stopping a juggernaut, an impersonal force that we have unleashed on ourselves: Climate change.

Recently, in an online session, these home-grown ambassadors of climate action were put through their paces by Supriya Sahu, additional chief secretary, environment, climate change and forests, Government of Tamil Nadu.

The exercise marks the beginning of a ten-month mentorship programme, in where they will get to work with senior officers in the department. The objective is to help them understand climate change and effect initiatives in their areas of influence and communities. The programme is also aimed at ensuring “gender balance in climate action”.

The genesis of this effort lies in a request from C40 Cities (c40.org), which is “a global network of mayors taking urgent action to confront the climate crisis and create a future where everyone can thrive”.

C40 Cities has launched what it calls “women for climate” (wfc.org) programme, one requiring participation of women from these 40 cities in climate action.

“They (C40) have been working with the Greater Chennai Corporation and various sectors in the Government of Tamil Nadu for a long time. So, we have partnered with them closely, and this initiative — women for climate — is something they wanted us to take up. We found a novel way of doing it, deciding that we would take women from across the sectors, especially young women who have a mind of their own and will be willing to take up this ten-month mentorship programme where they would basically be mentored on several (climate action) initiatives by senior officers in the department,” explains Supriya. “The process of selection was stringent: We had advertised and people applied, and the selection was made by a committee consisting of the chairperson of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and other eminent people, and C40 people were also part of it.”

The programme is entirely voluntary, with no commitment from the department, and none is expected from the participants either.