COP18 Youth Unite to Fight for Our Future

Just days before the United Nations COP18 climate talks opened at the Qatar National Convention Centre, young people from around the world filled the corridors of the venue, reminding the policymakers in attendance of people's circumstances under the climate change crisis and of the urgency of taking action.

Looking back over recent years, many youth-led demonstrations have swept the globe, and many young participants concerned about climate change sat on the ground outside the venue's doors, taking turns to stand up and share their personal experiences of lives threatened by a chaotic climate system. Speakers from Nepal, Mexico, Taiwan, China, Colombia, Nigeria and the United States stood in front of a map marked with red dots showing regions recently hit by extreme weather, wearing tops that echoed the red dots marking the disaster areas on the map.

Amanda Nesvitt, 23, talked about her experience as an environmental commissioner in Secaucus, New Jersey, USA. She said that although the United States is very wealthy, Hurricane Sandy caused enormous losses in lives, the economy and physical infrastructure, and her community is still struggling to rebuild from these conditions. She found that the storm brought the urgency of the climate issue back into political circles, and she hopes the Obama administration can take a more proactive stance to reduce carbon emissions and defend a meaningful global treaty. As she put it, "Any country that cares about its economic development should also care about the climate legacy it leaves to future generations."