Worry Youths, Climate Change is Here!

Kathmandu, December 23, 2018: A day program on “Worry Youths, Climate Change is here!” was organized by Nepal Youth Council (NYC Nepal) on December 22 at Amrit Campus, Kathmandu. The program was focused on youths, climate change and as a whole sustainable development goals. The main objective of the program was to make youths aware about COP24 & its achievements and role of youth to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). More than 70 participants from different academic background were presented there for the program.

The speakers of the program were Navin Singh Khadka, an Environmental Correspondent at BBC World Service, Manjeet Dhakal, head of LDC supports team at Climate Analytics, Praveen Kumar Regmi, a lecturer at Tri Chandra Multiple Campus and Pradeep Bhattarai, program officer at Prakriti Resource Centre.

Mr. Khadka highlighted some extreme events that the world has been facing from ages due to climate change. He noted that the current pledge on climate change will lead to more than 3 degree Celsius of temperature rise which means more and more extreme events will occur in near future. He highlighted the threats from across the border of Nepal, India’s dust storms, Glacier Lake i.e. enjoying high profile, shaky grounds, rattled mountains, water wars, Landslide Dammed Lake Outburst Flood (LDLOF) and Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Mr. Dhakal highlighted the role of delegates from ministerial level, NGOs and Medias in COP24. He also talked about the report of IPCC that has mentioned to limit earth’s temperature up to 1.5 degree Celsius. He mentioned that the main objective of the COP24 was to finalize Paris Agreement implementation guidelines, to brief on climate finance and capacity building to make healthier, safer and prosperous planet.

Mr. Regmi focused the importance of youth for the development of a nation. He also talked about SDGs and 5Ps i.e. people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership. He also called attention the targets and indicators of the SDG number 13 i.e. Climate Action. He showed up the roles of youth in achieving SDGs by being youth in imparting education, awareness building, policy maker, advocacy, volunteerism, entrepreneurship, disaster preparedness, campaigner, capacity builder and innovation & technology. He emphasized on the localization of SDGs being a responsible citizen.

Mr. Bhattarai shared his experiences he had during COP24. Being a youth delegate in COP24 he had raised youth voice for climate justice. He accentuated about the achievements of COP24, Paris Agreements, and the report of IPCC about limiting earth’s temperature up to 1.5 degree Celsius, bilateral meetings and Climate March. He also talked about Paris Rule Book and the guidelines developed to implement it.

The program organized by Nepal Youth Council (NYC Nepal) had sparrow as a SMS partner, Khalti as a digital partner and Glocal Khabar as an online partner.