Freya joins youth delegates holding leaders to account
A Tayvallich woman has joined with youth delegates from across the world in a bid to set the agenda for the UN Climate Summit.
Freya Aitchison was one of five Scottish representatives at the Conference of Youth in Glasgow from October 28 to 31, a prelude to COP26, in which young people from 140 countries gathered to make their voices heard by world leaders.
The delegates drew up a Statement of Youth setting out their hopes and expectations for the climate negotiations and presented it at the opening of COP26 to its president Alok Sharma.
Freya was representing YouthLink Scotland at the conference which she described as the most international and diverse event she has ever attended.
‘It was amazing to meet people who had come from all over the world especially to talk about the climate crisis and hold our leaders accountable for safeguarding our futures,’ she said.
‘I met people from Uruguay, Afghanistan, Japan, India, the Philippines, Nigeria, Honduras and so many more countries.
‘There were a lot of representatives from the global south and it was really powerful and moving to hear about their experiences with the impacts of climate change on their communities, the injustices faced by people who have done little to cause the climate crisis and in many cases the incredible grassroots organisations they have built up to spread awareness about climate change and to bring people together in the face of it.’
The 23-year-old’s concerns for the climate are not only for her peers in the global south; Freya explained that problems much closer to home were also preying on her mind.
‘As a coastal and rural area, Argyll is already seeing some of the impacts of more extreme weather events due to climate change, which will only get worse as time goes on,’ she said. ‘We’ve always had storms in the winter, but these are getting more severe and more frequent every year, causing damage like fallen trees and flooding. Although we all know that Argyll is a very rainy place, increasing intensity of rainfall is causing landslides on the Rest and be Thankful more and more often, cutting off our easiest route to the rest of Scotland and often disrupting our journeys.
‘Sea-level rise will also be a big problem in years to come, especially on islands like Tiree where the 2.5-metre sea level rise that is predicted by 2100 will split the island in half.
‘Lochgilphead, Oban and Campbeltown will also be seriously impacted by flooding due to sea level rise too.’
The young people’s knowledge, experiences and worries culminated in the Global Youth Declaration, the main output of the conference of youth but also included input from 40,000 young people across the world who had contributed before the Glasgow event. This large-scale discussion reflected the inclusive and expansive nature of what the conference set out to achieve, as Freya explained: ‘Almost everyone was part of a wider network of young climate activists in their own countries and was representing a movement of young people not only calling for but actually implementing better climate education, systemic change, innovation and solutions.
‘There was also some indigenous representation from Association Jioboiana, which brought together five indigenous leaders and activists from Brazil to speak and perform at various events throughout the conference.’
Freya added that she saw a lot of positivity in the process of creating the youth declaration.
She said: ‘A major source of optimism for me was the sense of community that we formed at COY. The indigenous activist Alice Pataxó summed it up perfectly when she said in her speech at the closing ceremony that when she went home to her people she would tell them that ‘‘we are not alone anymore’’.’