Kathmandu, 30th August: An interaction session on “Role of Youths in Combating Climate Change’ was held at Khwopa College, Dekocha, Bhaktapur on 30th August, 2019. The session was presented by National Youth Alliance for Environment (NYEC), where prominent young environmentalists were present to share their journey as environmental activists and their achievements so far to inspire the youths to step up.
Starting with the general introduction to the understanding on Climate and climate change ultimately ended up with an interaction session between the curious and the presenters, where discussions on contemporary issues and efforts were brought to light. Mr. Rajan Thapa, with an experience of representing Nepalese youth effort on climate action both at national and international level, shared how the journey starts small and the urgency increases as we start to get a deeper understanding about the crisis at hand. He gave the audience a walk-through on climate action that has been carried in the country so far and stressed on the need of collective youth action in order to keep the future generation from facing the wrath of climate change.
“We determine how the climate change occurs through our daily activities”, said Mr. Praveen Kumar Regmi, faculty at Department of Environmental Science at Trichandra Campus and an activist working for the inclusion of youths in governance for a very long time. He shared his journey as an youth activist advocating for the change in the system of governance to the attitude of the people’s representatives on the issue related to Sustainable development. He further added that the achievements made so far were just the beginning and there is so much to be done to ensure a safely inhabitable Earth for the future generation by combating climate change to limit and control its rate and influence.
“As an aware youth, we should have eyes for opportunities in the times of most severe crisis and work on it help ourselves and the environment”, added Ms. Bindu Bhandari, who is a veterinian doctor and an environmentalist who has also represented Nepal in the international arena and have been recognized for effort on the international level. She explained how Environmental science was a multi-dimensional science and people from all walks of like can play a role to combat climate change. “Although it might seem that the youths from biological disciplines are on the forefront for the advocacy on combat against climate change, youths from all walks of life need to be aware and act to control the rate of climate change and secure a healthy environment for the future generations.
Later in the interaction session, the audience came forward with interesting questions to which the speakers shared their views on development issues along with the roles youth could play to combat climate change. Some of the notable points on discussion were on the topic of cutting down of trees for road expansion and airport construction, controlling the use of single-use plastic products and going vegetarian to combat climate change.
The first episode of the series was held at Uniglobe College, Baneswor. The title of the first episode was ‘Urbanization” and “Sustainable Development Goals” . The organizers are planning to conduct a total of 12 episodes on the talk series where the youths from different school, colleges and various walks of life will come together to learn and share on the topic of our shared environment translated as “Haamro Paryawaran”. “We are motivate by the interest we are receiving from our respected presenters, partners and stakeholders for the conduction of the series so far and are committed to make the future sessions more accessible, informative and interactive so that we can reach out to the highest possible number of youths to sensate and involve them in the process of environmental conservation and sustainable development on allegiance to the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs)”, shared Mr. Ashsih Lamichhane, programme coordinator for NYEC.
– Avaya R Devkota
