Bloomberg Green: The Youth Climate Movement

[Music] i can't imagine the type of world that you want to live in that if we don't take action now when we're adults what is the world going to be like us young people are going to be the leaders of the future and with that responsibility comes the duty to stand up [Music] perhaps the loudest voice in the fight against climate change is the least represented in government and business the voice of the youth [Applause] the youth we're smart we're educated we're informed we're passionate and we have something to say about this and if you're not going to do anything about it then we are the youth climate movement is arguably the most visible activist project in the world today we are realizing the problems that we are facing are being faced by people in different corners of the world and meeting youth from around the world gives you a different perspective as for solutions for your own region in this episode of bloomberg green we meet some of these activists learn about their concerns and the changes they're fighting for people better watch out for youth in this next year because we are becoming more and more restless [Music] [Music] after two week crossing in the atlantic by boat greta tunberg the world's most famous youth climate activist landed in new york to attend the un climate action summit the speech he delivered there will become our most famous people are suffering people are dying entire ecosystems are collapsing we are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth how dare you if you didn't know about the youth climate movement before that speech you certainly did after bloomberg news akshat rati got to know some of these youth climate activists through a book he edited with contributions from 60 voices around the world with the pandemic keeping students at home we asked oxshot if the movement was still relevant it's a good question and we've seen when the movement was at its peak in in 2019 they were all over the front pages of newspapers and publications around the world and of course the pandemic made that go away but we are starting to see the movement stick to their principles because their main argument is that science says we should be cutting emissions really quickly and we are still not doing that and we can see their revival already in march for example some came out on the streets in countries where they were permitted to and i feel like when the pandemic goes away we'll see the full force come back another climate activist to come out of the student strikes fridays for future was alexandria villa senor she also represented the youth at the dnc i caught up with alexandria and spoke about how she got involved and what comes next [Music] on a trip back to where i was born and raised in northern california in november of 2018 i was here when one of the worst wildfires in california's history broke out the paradise fire i actually have asthma and the smoke was seeping into my home and making me really sick and at that point i was super upset of course because california is on fire all year round now even just in this past year we've had our first gigafire and so i decided to take my first form of activism in the form of school strike in solidarity with the fridays for future movement and so on december 14th of 2018 i took all the climate anxiety and equal grief i was feeling and i turned it into action by going and striking every friday at the united nations headquarters and i did that all the way up until the beginning of the pandemic so over a year and you also have your own organization correct so what's the goal i found that when young people talk to another young person we speak the same language and we have the same culture in generation z and so it empowers empowers us in different ways and so the mission of earth uprising is to educate each other peer-to-peer on the climate crisis and through that empower each other to go out and take direct action please all of you here tonight join me in welcoming these brave young heroes to the stage and you work with other very well-known prominent climate activists do you guys decide together about what you want to pressure world leaders or the u.n about she's gonna go in the u.n the youth climate movement is this ecosystem of youth organizations there's youth working in different areas some direct action some education some focusing on the systems of oppression and so we come after the system for climate action from all different areas and all are really needed when you organize for political leaders what do you want to hold them accountable for the ones that were just recently elected when it comes to climate what's the number one goal you think they should be focusing on i think what i'd like to say to world leaders and business leaders is to remind them that they have a moral responsibility to help preserve the planet and all of its natural wonders for future generations i'd also like to say that this is not how most of the world's business leaders are acting right now my generation sees how the planet continues to be exploited for profit we need the business leaders of the world to step up and invest in renewable energy in late 2019 i attended cop 25 in madrid and then a month later i attended the world economic forum in devos and what i noticed by attending both of these events is that more progress towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions and more bold climate agendas were actually put forward at the world economic forum than they were at cop25 and so i know businesses have the power to make a difference because i really did see it firsthand [Music] coming up defending paradise in the seychelles protecting the rain forest in brazil and a nine-year-old taking on the indian government their story is next this is bloomberg green [Music] seychelles is a small island developing state made of 115 islands just off the coast of east africa so we're literally a dot i primarily see myself as a conservationist working with the seychelles islands foundation which manages the and protects the two unesco sites for seychelles aldavar and fall and the valley demand we may be small in land mass but our ocean territory is 1.4 square million kilometers so 98 of our territories ocean we've protected just under 50 of our land mass and we're protecting 30 of our oceans so we're 10 years ahead of the global target of 30 by 30. for our size we're punching above our weight aldabra is an amazing protected area but you have limits on how much you can protect it and whether it's climate change where it's plastic pollution it's showing that yeah you can be million miles away and you can still have an impact on this place there's no plastic pollution denier like there's a climate change niagara but it almost begins to start a larger conversation about the anthropocene a part of this project i was involved with removed 25 metric tons of plastic pollution we realized that 80 in terms of weight of what we're picking up was fishing gear ghost gear and then you can start connecting that to the fact that seychelles is second largest driving economy is uh industrial fission unsustainable fisheries is a ever-present issue connected to pollution plastic pollution how we basically move to be sustainable and equitable and i think it's important to emphasize equitable because it must not just be a race to to extract it must be a cultivated approach deep sea bed mining is something that for me very few people have heard of but the the proponents are saying this would be the way in which we supply the world of the precious metals needed for the renewable energy revolution deepsea bed mining takes place at below 250 meters but we know what happens already at the terrestrial level be it child labor environmental degradation biodiversity loss will only be likely to be worse talking to some of the experts they think the sediment that will be lifted up could be in suspension for for years if not decades you know in terms of coral in terms of other species being affected that's gone and we didn't even know it existed in some cases so i'm a proponent of a 10-year moratorium that would be in line with the un decade of ocean science so we understand a bit more about the ocean before we go to places we've never been the role of the ocean in terms of carbon sequestration provision of food it's a scary thing when you're on the same side as industrial fishes the true thing i think we should be looking towards is the circuit economy if we deal with our e-waste the way we should we wouldn't be needing to go elsewhere protecting and sustainably managing the ocean is essential for food lively woods and mitigating climate disruption and related disasters what we're finding especially from the global south perspective is a lot of commitments are hollow something like classic pollution climate change the issue is political will it's not technological it's commitments to live in an island that's so protected and also fragile at the same time is rare and unprivileged my name is joey hiki i'm brazilian i'm based in kurichiba and i work as a climate activist i've been to amazon once in my life working in a place called tapajos i live in the area of matatologica it's the biome with the most impact so far because it was the first one to colonize it i think all the struggles are connected because the the main source of the violence is the same which is the agriculture the livestock and soy plantations big monocultures but also mining in the amazon the leadership of those environmental groups is changing because 10 years ago they were of mostly white people from the middle class and right now we are getting more attention and more importance to the indigenous communities and traditional communities in brazil being in the leadership of environmental groups with a more focus on social environmental justice in brazil the traditional community lands are the ones who have the lowest rates of deforestation and most of those this land doesn't have legal protection not only the the conservation it's not secured but the communities are not secured as well and since they are in this great space the loggers the mining the the farmers are using violence against the traditional communities to give ownership legal ownership to the communities would be a really just way to make a historical reparation with those communities and also to help lower our emissions we can't talk about environmental justice if we don't tackle the inequalities and the favelas are places that highlights how in nepal our country is we have this shift between the leaders of the environmental groups it's the same thing with the cavaliers people are getting engaged with the environmental movement we had elections last year we worked on building an online free course on climate change and cities for candidates they needed to commit to the climate agenda and with civic participation to be able to access the course we publicized a list of candidates who took the course so also the voters could see okay my candidate is committed to the common agenda so i'm gonna vote for him we could elect 21 candidates which are now public leaders who are committed to the climate agenda in 18 different cities i've been working almost for 10 years on activism the first approach that i had was with the cyclists movement every day a cyclist gets killed in brazilian cities the cyclists are considered enemies of the drivers and also this highlights the the inequality because here in brazil the people who use public transport are the ones who can't afford a car the current federal government society and environmental groups as enemies of the state there's not a beautiful way to say that we won't have agriculture in 20 years if we keep on this same approach so we need to show that there's other kinds of economy who are strong with the forest up and not down people always tell me that you are too young to get involved in such activism but i proved them that age doesn't matter to make a difference i am big or small it doesn't matter i am a girl child i am strong smart intelligent and brave [Applause] i came to delhi in 2016 for the first time but my life became very messy due to the high air pollution later i moved to bhubaneshwar odisha for my schooling and again my home in odisha was set by saturn in deadly 2018 and cyclone funny 2019. all such incidents in my young life turns me into a child farming activist i have three main demands to our leaders and the government to change the system first is to pass this climate change low as soon as possible from the paper to come action if they pass this climate change low then can control the carbon emission and renault's gases it will also give the climate justice to the poor vulnerable people who are all the the victims of climate change second is to include climate change as a compulsory subject in our school education curriculum then we can fight the climate change from the grassroots and it will also help to teach our world leaders by their own children and grandchildren number third is in india there are 350 millions deaths at 350 million dense plant medium 10 trees every year then we will plant over 3.5 billion trees in october 2020 president of india enacted a new law to fight the delhi application crisis permanently and this is our great achievement the states of rajasthan goshrat maharashtra sikkim and bihar has taken the initiative to include climate change as a compulsory subject in a school education curriculum india has become the second country in the world after italy taking such initiative in the history of the world foreign the best gift parents can give to their children it's not beautiful house expensive cars lots of money the best gift you can give to your children is a beautiful plant to give this planet you have to change yourself if you can change yourself then can change your family if you can change your family you can change your name if you can change your neighborhood that can change community if you can change community that can change state it can change a state it can change a country if you can change a country that can change the whole world change means empowerment empowerment means independent independent means freedom freedom is when you can protect your land environment freedom is when no one can discriminate you on the base of cars great color sex or any other differences freedom is when you can read and write freedom is when you're out of hunger freedom is when we are all together in this fight fight for your freedom [Applause] i got involved in climate activising from a young age i grew up in the most forested region in kenya this love for nature also made me want to learn and understand more about the environment just getting to discover that the wild forests were being destroyed and being burned down at alarming rates discovering that there were children in some parts of the world where they had to put on pollution masks just to go to school that's when i realized that there was more to nature and the environment around the world beyond what i was seeing close to my home and of course this made me feel angry but it also gave me a hunger to want to do something about these challenges i still recall planting my first tree at the age of seven and i've also been able to found an organization that's called green generation initiative that i founded back in 2016. this initiative focuses on a campaign that i dubbed adopt a tree campaign to make sure that every child in every school gets a chance to plant and adopt a treat in the school compound unless we explain to the children in deep terms then they will not understand what the climate crisis means for them we also expose them to understand that they can be a part of the solutions and of course this was to make them develop a love for nature and at the same time help in contributing to the country's forest cover increment that is supposed to hit and surpass the 10 percent forest cover by the year 2022 right now my country stands at about 7.3 and this is below the u.n required minimum for every country i see a lot of trees being planted all around the world but the big question remains how many of these trees get to grow up to maturity it is so great to see so many countries committing to net zero but we want to see what they are doing right now to be able to get to this trajectory that we are talking about as much as we're focusing on emissions reduction we should also make sure that our ecosystems are also remaining intact and being well managed because we are both in a climate crisis and an ecological crisis and unless we recognize that the two crises are happening at the same time then it's going to be difficult for us to address them as they should be addressed the world is changing rapidly and every consequence of inaction of the world leaders we are the ones will have to live longer with it [Music] coming up we explore the different theories of change behind climate groups this is bloomberg green [Music] there's a new force of nature at hand stirring all over the world they are the young people whom frankly we have failed who are angry who are organized who are capable of making a difference they are a moral army the biden harris administration has an opportunity to deliver for a generation of progressives that will probably represent the democratic party in about 20 to 30 years we love to say you know young people they're not the future they are present they campaigned on climate they advertised on climate they talked about climate in every single presidential and vice presidential debate true and here's thinking about the green new deal and there's no doubt that was an absolute critical element of getting a record number of young people to turn out and vote i think that this is the generation of the green new deal it's a generation that is calling for taking fossil fuel money out of politics young people are changing the views of their parents i don't think young people are going to fix this for us nor should they and they've been very clear that it is not their job but the question is can they catalyze a movement that embodies the kind of urgency that we need in the face of this crisis every single person up here represents the power of the movement it represents the power of indigenous communities the power of young people organizing the power of the movement for black lives organizing showing that climate is intersectional with every one of our needs and demands we have more young people pushing for change we have more proof that what is good for the climate is good for business and is good for us all welcome back to bloomberg green i'm anne-marie corderon in london we've gone around the world speaking to activists mostly virtually of course and learning about what they are doing to enact change whether it's big business or big government they want their voices heard but what have they achieved so far bloomberg's akshat rati says it's a difficult question to answer [Music] with any protest it's very hard to connect one action to one outcome but maybe there are three ways to look at it and they're tied to the three different youth movements that exist the first one is extinction rebellion their mo is to be disruptive and to gain attention to their message which is to act on the climate emergency and act with urgency the second group is the sunrise movement in the u.s which has helped elect green-minded politicians like aoc and then re-elect them and really put the green new deal on the political agenda of president joe biden and then there is the fridays for future movement and that movement is much more subtle they're just saying look scientists have been talking about climate action for a very long time and they've told you exactly what you need to be doing leaders both governments and corporations why aren't you doing it how are the c-suite how are chief executives around the world thinking of the youth movement do they need to care we know that one of the power of the youth movement is that these are kids who have parents who are in powerful positions around the world so last year for example when we spoke to the ceo of shell he told us that his 10 year old daughter came back home one day and asked him point blank is shell a part of the problem those things affect people much more closely and makes them realize why this problem is so big right and if they're the youth now how is the fossil fuel industry going to be attracting talent if the youth movement today refuses to work in say oil and gas companies we are already starting to see oil and gas companies and fossil fuel companies in general trying to rebrand themselves so a number of oil companies have lost the word oil in them so stat oil most recently became equinar for example as a reporter i've talked to ceos of oil companies who've said we're not an oil company we're an energy company and that's all okay but if 95 of your business is tied to fossil fuels it's going to be a hard job to convince young people to join their company that does it for this week's edition but keep the conversation going follow us on twitter at climate i'm anne-marie hordern and this is bloomberg green

Channel: Bloomberg Markets and Finance

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Id: TGiVU90W_v0

Length: 24min 6sec (1446 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 16 2021