I have no climate hopes, only demands

AS COP26 takes place, young people from around the world are telling the Mirror each day why the environment summit must not fail.

Today, Mitzi Jonelle Tan,

23, from the Philippines, calls for leaders to give grants to lower-income countries to help them adapt to climate change.

Mitzi writes: “I grew up being afraid of drowning in my own bedroom as the storms and typhoons ravaged my country. Extreme weather events, coupled with the historical and ongoing exploitation of the global South, has caused irreversible loss and damage and made it almost impossible for us to be resilient.

Climate justice needs reparations from the global North – not as loans, but as grants to be used for the loss and damage we have experienced and for people-centred adaptation we need, which varies per community. In the CRISIS Mitzi Jonelle Tan

Philippines, taking care and planting the right species of mangroves in some areas is a concrete example of this.

And of course, the most urgent climate solution – constantly ignored – is drastic emissions cuts.

I keep getting asked what my hopes are but I don’t have hopes. I have expectations and demands. I expect world leaders finally to treat the climate crisis as a crisis and to stop compromising on our lives.” ■ The climate crisis is a children’s crisis. Half the world’s youngsters live in areas at high risk of climate and environmental hazards and stresses – including droughts, floods, heatwaves and air pollution – but every c hild in the world will be affected.

At COP 2 6, UNICEF UK is urging the UK Government to give children a seat at the table, listen to their views and put them at the heart of the response to the climate c risis.