Here is a guest blog post from our good friend Abhishek Shreshta of the Nepalese Youth for Climate Action, one of the lead organizers of the first ever South Asian Youth Summit on Climate Change, being hosted in Nepal this September. Applications are due August 10!
Climate Change has emerged out to be one of the major problems of our generation and South Asia is the region in the world that will be severely hit by climate change in different sectors. Impacts of Climate change in the South Asian region are already being felt and this is evident in the Himalayas, the raising temperatures is leading to glacier meltdown, sea level raise in low lying places and change in the monsoon pattern.
South Asia is home to a fifth of the world’s population, and 40 percent of its poor, the region which includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Climate change is already taking place, and the South Asian countries, particularly the poorest people, are most at risk. South Asia is going to face vast problems with climate change and this is related to poverty and the varied climate and geography in the region.
The growing challenges posed by climate change have threatened the existence of mankind and young people are entangled at the centre of this disaster. Youth possess the power to change the climate change with their comparative advantage to adapt and act as agents of change.
With the theme “Road to Copenhagen” Youths from the South Asian region are uniting and ready to raise their voice on climate change from September 3-6th 2009 in Dhulikhel, Nepal where 80 youth participants from the south Asian region and globe will be gathering and discussing on different agenda on climate change.
The highlights of the Summit are thematic sessions, training session, leadership building, and developing a South Asian youth vision on climate change and plan for Copenhagen. The vision for the South Asian Youth Summit on Climate change is to bring together young people from the South Asia and craft a movement of young people from South Asia contributing all that they can to the collective global effort to redress the climate crisis. The Summit will create a regional youth coalition at the end of this summit which will latter emphasize on joint campaigns, movements and activity targeting the Copenhagen. The Summit is the joint effort of Srilankan Youth Climate Action Network, Nepalese Youth for Climate Action, Indian Youth Climate Network, Bangladesh Youth Climate Network, Pakistan Youth Climate Coalition, Clean Energy Nepal and350.org.
For further details please visit our website:https://nyca.net.np/saysocc09 or contact Abhishek Shrestha, Communication Coordinator (SAYSoCC), [email protected]