Climate troubles: empowering young people to cause change

By: Henry Lutaaya on November 20th, 2009

Ugandan students attend the Africa Initiative on Climate Change conference in Kampala, November 2-4, 2009

It has been described as the first major conference held on the African continent that provided the public with knowledge to raise climate change awareness among their peers.

The first African Initiative Congress on Climate Change was held at Speke Resort, Munyonyo, in Kampala, from November 2 to 4. The Canada-based Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) hosted the conference with its Ugandan partners Salama Shield Foundation and Makerere University.

Raising awareness

Dr. Irene Sage, the African Initiative’s Associate Director, said its objective was to raise awareness about climate change, not just in Uganda, but all across the African continent.

Dr. Sage argued that a number of studies – including many National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs), conducted by many African countries over the past few months – have emphasised the low levels of climate change awareness.

The conference comes only a few weeks after two major reports – one by the Department for International Development (DFID), the UK Government’s development agency, and another o by the BBC World Service Trust – indicated that a lack of public awareness was the greatest challenge facing Uganda in its efforts to confront climate change.

Involving young people

Around 300 secondary school students and over 350 district leaders shared their views and learned about climate change at the conference.

Uganda’s Minister in charge of the environment, Jessica Eriyo, applauded the involvement of children and local leaders. She called on the youngsters to spearhead the awareness campaign among their fellow students and their parents.

The president of the African Initiative, Prof. Nelson Ssewankambo, who is also the principal of Makerere University College of Health Sciences, told the young people to use their new knowledge to bring about changes in people’s attitudes to resources like water and food.

Efficient use of these resources is necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, he said. These emissions are believed to be a main cause of climate change.

New knowledge

For students and local council leaders, many of whom were hearing the scientific explanations and likely consequences of climate change on areas such as food security, health, and poverty for the first time, the information was a source of anxiety and confusion.

Many participants sought answers to questions on the roles they could play in stopping climate change, while others demanded action by the developed countries because of their contribution to global warming.

George Aliau, of Kiira College, Butiki, in Eastern Uganda, spoke of the growing problem of deforestation in the country: “We have learnt that human activities like cutting down trees is a major cause of global warming.” He added, however: “But when cutting trees is the only source of livelihood for someone who burns charcoal, that person needs urgent help to find an alternative source of income to sustain his family.”

For 16 year-old Ivan Okuda the lack of action, not words, was a concern: “Politicians need to stop talking and get down to business. Everybody in the community should mount pressure on politicians to prioritise climate change in everything that they do.”

More than words

The conference was not just talk about climate change.

No meat was served throughout the entire three-day event and there were no paper presentations for participants, as is usually the case in most conferences in Uganda. Raising cattle for meat and cutting down trees for paper production both cause greenhouse gas emissions.

These actions demonstrated the kinds of sacrifices Ugandans, and the rest of the world population, may have to make in order to curb climate change.