Now is the time to fights against climate change

Hazel Marimbiza

In several parts of the world, people are facing numerous climate-related impacts such as severe drought and flooding, air pollution and water scarcity, leaving their children vulnerable to malnutrition and disease.

Almost every child on earth is exposed to at least one of these climate and environmental hazards. Without urgent action, this number will go up.

Nkosilathi Nyathi, 17, a United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) climate activist from Victoria Falls said he feels that although young people can see and feel the effects of climate change, many don’t know what’s happening.

“There are some youths who don’t know what climate change is. They see the effects of climate change but they don’t really know what’s going on. My message to young people is that there is no other time for acting than now. We are supposed to be on the frontlines, fighting for climate justice. The future is ours,” he said.

Nkosilathi said he has witnessed first-hand the result of climate change and there’s no other time for acting than now.

“I often say that I live climate change. My friends live it. My family lives it too. This is something which we are living in. We talk of droughts, we talk of floods, and we talk of heatwaves. These are things which we are experiencing in our day to day lives. And something must be done about this.

“Around my area people depend on agriculture. Right now they have even transitioned to small grains crops. But sometimes the rain doesn’t come and we get droughts. Sometimes we get heavy downpours. The land is no longer balanced as it was before so something needs to be done.

“If I was given just two minutes to re-imagine a better future, I would imagine a world where every child is included in crucial decision making. I would re-imagine a world where every household uses clean energy. But the painful part of all this is that this might just be imaginations which will never come to pass.

“If there is a fear in me, it’s that I have dedicated my time to advocate for change and yet as I grow older each year nothing convincing gives me hope that the future is green. Someone must do something and I have started the change I want, everyone can also do something to save the future and there is no better time for doing that than now,” he said.

In Zimbabwe’s rural areas direct impacts of droughts are mostly causing hunger among children.

In a Whatsapp interview one 16- year-old boy, Bigboy Muleya from Binga who is facing the direct impacts of climate change said: “This area experiences drought every year and a lot of times my parents struggle to give me food. When l am hungry l feel weak and sleepy even when the teacher is talking.”

Parents struggling to secure food or get money to buy food, puts emotional and psychological stresses on children.

“When there is no food at home you cannot even talk to parents easily. Sometimes they just get angry for no apparent reason,” said Bigboy.

Owing to this increased stress, families are more likely to marry girls to older men, or girls may be forced into sexual exploitation in order to alleviate the economic burden.

According to Jessica Cooke, climate change advisor at Plan International, climate change is one of the greatest global intergenerational, gender and social injustices of our time.

“Discriminatory social and gender norms mean that girls and women, in all their diversity, are too often the hardest hit by climate change and have the fewest resources to cope. Failing to keep global warming below 1.5C will only see more climate impacts and roll back progress towards equality and justice.

Experts say meeting the 1.5 degree target means slashing global emissions nearly in half by 2030 and to “net-zero” by 2050. “This is why it has never been so important to amplify their voices regarding their needs and the climate change impacts they are experiencing, as well as the solutions and recommendations they are demanding,” said Cooke.

According to the Malala Fund, there are  four million girls in low and lower-middle income countries who won’t finish school in 2021 because of climate-related events.

As such, leaders who attended COP 26 have been called on to raise ambitions on emissions reductions, and increase climate finance to at least the committed $100 billion per year.

Meanwhile, there have been calls for young people, particularly girls and young women, to be meaningfully engaged in the development and implementation of climate policy processes.

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