Ekta Kothari, director of The Rising Tide
Representatives from the global south have a lot at stake at the COP15 talks underway in Copenhagen to work out a new climate agreement. Effects of freshwater systems around the world, especially in the global south, are already becoming a reality. Youth in particular have a large stake in this, because they will very likely see these catastrophes in their lifetime if nothing is done by those in power – those who have much less self-interest invested in the future.
Dipesh Chapagain, the outreach director for the Nepalese Youth Climate Action Network, summed up the issue of justice and equity dichotomies. Chapagain described a need for equity between the north and the south, but also the need for equity between generations. This not only reflects a difference in interests between developing and industrialized countries, but also between youth and the older generation in power.
The Nepalese Youth for Climate Actions have been working on a campaign to raise awareness of the importance of Mt. Everest to their livelihood. According to Chapagain, the Himalayan glaciers fresh water to approximately 1.5 billion people who depend on it. According to Bill McKibbin, the Ganges River–which sources its freshwater from the Himalayas– is expected to dry up by the year 2035. This will leave much of India and Bangladesh without many options for food, since agriculture in these countries depends heavily on this water table.
These effects are already being seen in places like the Sunderbands, a delta at the end of the Ganges. The waters there are rising, the result of melting icecaps upstream. This is causing flooding, but will lead to drought in a short while, when the entire snowcap has melted. Ekta Kothari, a member of Project Survival Media and of the Indian Youth Climate Network, reported on this in a documentary called The Rising Tide, a film to be screened at the Copenhagen summit by Project Survival Media.
Another South Asian country coping with these changes is the Maldives. They have been represented here in Copenhagen by a youth delegation, and a strong voice from their very own President, Mohammud Nasheed. Nasheed, at a joint event with Bill McKibben director of the 350 movement, pledged that the the Maldives will be climate neutral by the year 2050, despite their negligible contribution to carbon emissions. Youth delegates have been amplifying their president’s voice through actions and speeches here at the conference.
Although South Asian nations face a lot of challenges due to climate change, they are also working towards solutions. Their representation at COP has been increasing quickly: last year was the first time Indian youth organized themselves into an official youth delegation. This year though, the delegation sent 20-25 youth representatives.
Indian youth have also been cataloguing clean energy developments all over the country. A group of Indian youth traveled 4000 kilometers around the subcontinent to document individual and community sustainability projects. They have compiled all of these on indiaclimatesolutions.com. It is a valuable resource for communities and governments alike, who can see initiatives for climate solutions taking place all over the country, and now have the resources and capacity to encourage projects that are particularly interesting or valuable to communities, depending on local needs.
Throughout the sub continent, South Asian youth have taken it upon themselves, with few resources and little responsibility towards mitigation, to do something about climate change. Their efforts should be an inspiration for the system and policy that seems to be lagging behind.
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Amy Dewan is a part of the United States youth movement. She is a member of Project Survival Media, and was part of a team of people that produced a film on survival in West Oakland. She did a study-abroad in India on Environmental Policy last year after the COP14 in Poznan, and has been following the environmental policies of South Asia since.
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