Young activists to take spotlight for a day at UN climate talks
Gulf Times
Climate activists Greta Thunberg and Vanessa Nakate attend the Youth4Climate pre-COP26 conference in Milan, Italy, September 28, 2021.
Activists will take over the UN climate summit in Scotland on Friday, capping off a week of dizzying government speeches and pledges with a student march, youth-led presentations, and a giant iceberg shipped from Greenland to Glasgow's River Clyde to dramatise the plight of the Arctic.
UK organizers decided to hand the day over to civic groups in an acknowledgement of how young campaigners like Vanessa Nakate of Uganda and Greta Thunberg of Sweden have raised public understanding of climate change, and a nod to their stance that today's youth must live with consequences of state decisions.
"We're expecting lots of people to come and join us in the streets and not only youth but also adults supporting youth, and adults that want climate action,” said Isabelle Axelsson, 20, an activist with Thunberg’s climate movement Fridays For Future, which is organizing the march.
The COP26 talks in Glasgow aimed to secure enough national promises to cut greenhouse gas emissions - mainly from fossil fuels - to keep the rise in the average global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Crossing that threshold could trigger a cascading climate crisis, scientists say.
