Daily TribuneToxic air pollution particles can cross the placenta and end up in the livers, lungs, and brains of fetuses. Additional data indicates that every day, around 93 percent of the world’s children under the age of 15 breathe polluted air. Tragically, many of them die.
Young climate activists cross the Egyptian desert in a bid to demand climate justice. | PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF UN YOUTH
YOUTH leaders with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
YOUTH are demanding solutions to climate change. | PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF UNSPLASH/Tobias rademacher
Years into the Conference of Parties, a summit that brings together the world's most powerful, little action is still done to address climate change.
"We actually stopped expecting from world leaders. Now we have demands for them," Nisreen Elsaim said, chair of the Sudan Youth Organization on Climate Change and the UN Secretary General's Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change.
The young climate activist from Sudan cited COP's climate finance which shifted from US 100 billion in 2021 to US 100 trillion in 2022 yet a goal hasn't been achieved.
"How many more reports do we need to actually realize that we are in a very bad situation and we are running out of time and we are losing this planet?" Elsaim said.
A few years ago, scientists began to discover fossil fuels are literally killing us, Sophia Kianni, the youngest United Nations advisor and founder of international youth-led non-profit Climate Cardinals, said.
Toxic air pollution particles can cross the placenta and end up in the livers, lungs and brains of fetuses. Additional data indicates that every day, around 93 percent of the world's children under the age of 15 breathe polluted air. Tragically, many of them die.
"If our leaders took action to meet who air quality guidelines, we would save millions of lives, drive real clim
ate action and keep children safe. What are our leaders waiting for?" Kianni said.
In 2016, 600,000 children died from acute lower respiratory infections caused by polluted air without aggressive action to slash greenhouse gas pollution. At this rate, climate crisis is going to become the defining narrative of human health.
"I am very much dedicated to have the hope that will take us somewhere, not the hope that will keep us in our place and that's why it's not climate anxiety. It's climate reality," Elsaim added.
COP27 is currently being held at Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt until 18 November.
COP was first held in Berlin, Germany in March 1995. The most recent, COP26, was hosted by the United Kingdom in Glasgow from 31 October to 12 November 2021. COP28 will take place in Dubai Expo City, UAE on 6 to 17 November 2023.
