United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bonn - Green Hope makes a mark

Dubai, UAE, November 12, 2017:  Youth members of Green Hope were in Bonn, Germany last week , making an emphatic statement to  COP23 , the United Nations Conference on Climate Change. On the weekend preceding this summit , a Conference of Youth , known as COY13, was held and was attended by thousands of youth activists from all over the world. A two member team from Green Hope , comprising of its Founder President Kehkashan Basu and Campaign Officer , Joshua Saji were invited to conduct a workshop at this summit. Green Hope’s workshop was titled “ Impacts of Climate Change on Sustainable Consumption” . Addressing a full house of youth activists during the workshop , Kehkashan said “We are running the most dangerous experiment in history right now, which is to see how much carbon dioxide the atmosphere can handle before there is an environmental meltdown. Climate change  is the harshest reality of our times and we can see its impacts all around us. Polar icecaps are melting, sea levels are rising, typhoons and hurricanes are wreaking havoc, forest fires are choking our skies and fossil fuel driven economies are turning our cities into veritable gas chambers.”

A panel of youth leaders from the Netherlands , Mexico , France , Lebanon and Yemen also spoke at this workshop sharing their views on the linkages between climate change and sustainable consumption. Green Hope always uses different modes of communication to convey its messages and during the workshop , Kehkashan and Joshua also performed  a self composed  song on Climate Justice . Green Hope members , Pragna , Anshita and Ryan also joined the workshop via video link from Dubai.

During this three day  COY13 conference, Green Hope also put up an info-booth through which they interacted with hundreds of visitors, using intercative methods to spread awareness about climate change impacts. The visitors to the booth also wrote their eco-pledges on hand cutouts and stuck them to a Tree of Hope.

Green Hope is one of the partners of World Bank’s Connect4Climate initiative and joined in their “Uniting4Climate”Global Digital Surge which sought to reach out to millions of people across the world connecting them via the social media  , during COP23 showing the world that climate action demands a global response - and that includes everyone: cities, businesses, youth, the arts and governments at every level. As part of this activation , Green Hope conducted a “Twitter campaign “ which engaged young people across the world demanding youth empowerment in the climate change process.

Green Hope also shared its journey at a workshop conducted by UNICEF at COY13 titled 'COMICS 4 Climate Action'.

Thereafter , from 6th Nov onwards Green Hope made several impactful interventions in different youth engagement forums at COP23 . Kehkashan was nominated as UNICEF’s youth ambassador at COP23 and  she was a panelist at their event “Youth Power the Planet - An Activate Talk “ held at the Climate Action Studio. The Prime Minister of Fiji , which was presiding over this conference , also attended this event.

Kehkashan also facilitated an FAO ( Food and Agriculture Organisation) Facebook live event where she interviewed Thomas Pesquet, an astronaut with ESA - European Space Agency and Anne Mottet, Livestock Development Officer at FAO, about climate change, our planet and food security.

During COP23 , the United Nations SDG Action Campaign organized a multi-stakeholder session, attended by representatives from subnational governments, the UN-System, leading innovators, and organisations will share different perspectives on what innovative approaches, new collaborations and engagement techniques to mobilize millions are making tangible change at the local and global level. Kehkashan was one of the panelists at this discussion and she shared the innovative actions of youth engagement undertaken by Green Hope at this event.

Green Hope also performed its song 'Climate Cry' at several events at COP23 which is composed by Kehkashan.

Green Hope believes that the current generation is the last one that has the opportunity of mitigating climate change before it is too late and delivered this message emphatically at COP23 and echoed the call for greater youth engagement to realise a sustainable world.