As the COP26 climate summit looms, youth activists converged in Milan for the Pre-Cop26 to mount pressure on world leaders to match rhetoric with action.
Italy is hosting the Pre-COP26 event in Milan from September 30 to October 2, in a bid to get world leaders to shape negotiations that will take place during the COP26 summit, set to take place in Glasgow.
Uganda’s Vanessa Nakate, Sweden’s Greta Thunberg and Italy’s Martina Comparelli met with Italian Prime minister Mario Draghi in a private meeting on Thursday, before the premier and president of the G20 spoke in front of thousands of other activists.
Draghi promised that he would speak up at the G20 summit in Rome to accelerate a pledge of USD100 billion a year, a donation that was promised a decade ago by wealthy nations to help vulnerable countries transition to cleaner energy and mitigate the effects of global warming.
“I hope Draghi will fulfill his promise,” Nakate told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference.
Thousands of young activists stormed Milan this week for a Youth4Climate event, blaming world leaders for empty promises and little done to tackle global warming.
“Thirty years of blah, blah, blah,” Thunberg told the opening session of the Youth4Climate event on Tuesday.
Decades after world leaders pledged to tackle environmental problems, youth activists are being challenged to come up with solutions ahead of the COP26 summit.
Some 400 young activists, from about 190 countries, are engaging with policymakers to work on proposals for possible solutions.
Their proposals will be vetted by climate and energy ministers gathering at the Pre-COP26 today, and some will find their way to the Glasgow summit.
“Young people need to start getting involved in the actual negotiations,” Rose Kobusinge, a youth delegate from Uganda said, “we want 1.5 (degrees) and we won’t go beyond that.”
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres urged young activists to keep up their pressure on world leaders, praising them for “setting a powerful example.”
“The window of opportunity to prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis is closing quickly,” he told hundreds of youth activists gathered in Milan as the Pre-COP26 kicks off.
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