Young eco-champion makes a presentation at Paris climate meet

LUCKNOW: Nineteen-year-old city girl, Yugratna Srivastava made a presentation to world leaders, including PM Narendra Modi and US president Barack Obama, at the ongoing international conference of parties (COP 21), in Paris. It was a proud moment for India as well as for Yugratna, who, six years ago, became the youngest child to address as many as 100 world leaders at the 2009 United Nation summit on climate change in New York.

Yugratna was part of the conference of youths, held from November 26 to 28, prior to the conference. The programme was aimed at preparing youngsters from 66 countries to talk about climate change before world leaders during the COP 21 summit. Youths participating in the conference gave presentations on ‘climate crisis and concerns about environment conservation’.

For Yugratna, this was her second meeting with the prime minister. In 2010 she had visited Gujarat and had met Modi, who was then serving as the chief minister of the state. Talking about her experience of speaking in front of the prime minister, Yugratna said, “It’s a milestone achievement. It’s something big to represent the country before the world on such a platform, in the presence of the prime minister. I am enthralled.”

Explaining how she got shortlisted for this prestigious conference, Yugratna said that it was on the basis of her achievements and work experience at the world-level programme, ‘climate strike’. “I am the part of Climate Strike, a world-level programme to put a check on economical and ecological destruction, and to promote green alternatives. I was among the eight in the core team. On the basis of my work during this programme, UN shortlisted me to be a part of the event,” she added.

At the Paris climate conference, Yugratna found US President Barack Obama’s speech the most interesting. She said it was wonderful to listen to Obama calling US the country that had polluted the environment the most. “I attended the morning plenary of COP21, where Obama addressed us and said that US was the world’s biggest economy but also the country that had polluted the environment the most,” – read Yugratna’s Facebook post.

The teen eco champion is of the opinion that youngsters needed to speak up on issues of environment as they could highlight different aspects without being influenced politically. “We just want to motivate the leaders to give a thought to climate conservation measures,” she added.

On her Facebook wall, Yugratna has further appealed to the youth, saying, “It’s time for young engineers to come up with renewable energy solutions.”

I am part of Climate Strike, a world-level programme to put a check on economical and ecological destruction, and to promote green alternatives.

YUGRATNA SRIVASTAVA