British Council encourages youth participation in climate change

The Global Youth Letter (GYL) on Climate Action and accompanying 8, 000 Rising campaign is part of the British Council’s Climate connection programme, a global platform for dialogue, cooperation, and action, connecting people through shared solutions to the climate crisis.

According to the British Council, young people are at the centre of this collaborative approach, as “we support them to raise their voices, and gain the skills and networks to participate in meaningful dialogue and bring about real change for our planet”.

Project manager Boitumelo Kgangetsile at British Council said in efforts to promote 8000Rising Campaign and the GYL they are planning to hold activities that are also aligned to the Botswana Vision 2036’s ‘Climate Resilience and Disaster

Risk Reduction’ theme under ‘Pillar 3 which is: Sustainable Environment.’

Kgangetsile noted that this also speaks to the government of Botswana’s commitment to engage in a robust approach to build capacity that would enhance the country’s competency to implement international treaties and decisions that are foundational to domestic and climate change actions as articulated in the Botswana Climate Change Policy under ‘International Cooperation’.

The launch of the GYL Country events was on Monday, while the Voices on Climate Change and Photo Campaign ran from Monday and ends on Friday.

Climate Change quizzes begin today and end on Friday, while the Climate change webinar will be held on Thursday, the debates will be on Friday and a Networking reception will be held on 12

November.

The GYL on Climate Action is a call for action from young people globally, directly addressing the leaders attending COP26 – the 26th UN Climate Change Conference, in Glasgow, November 2021.

“It is the result of a largescale research exercise between the British Council and not for profit social enterprise catalyst in communities, who used a mixed methodology approach including crowd sourcing to garner the views, experiences, and aspirations of 8,000 young people across 23 countries.

“We aim to be as representative as possible in terms of gender, background, location, and socio-economic status, the research team worked through global COVID-19 restrictions to amplify the unheard voice of the climate debate: today’s youth,” Kgangetsile said.