Young Climate Delegates Put Survival Before Wealth
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Rebecca (left) and Maxlin during an event at CoP 15
Rebecca Asigau, a young woman from Papua New Guinea, doesn’t think that countries keen to expand their economies at the cost of the “extinction” of small island nations deserve to be called superpowers.
“They want their economies, not the survival of people, to be at the forefront,” she says.
Rebecca, who is the only youth representative from her country at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen, added: “They are sticking to their stands when the world needs their cooperation and patronage.”
Asked what she would do if she was the leader of a major world economy, she replied: “I would take a serious look at the humanitarian aspect of climate change and think about how I would feel if my own country was exposed to a major risk.”
Rebecca is keen to learn as much as about climate change as she can, and take her newfound knowledge back home.
“People don’t know much about climate change in my country – how it is happening and the activities that cause it. So it would be good for me to bring back some lessons from here”, she said.
Maxlin Sese, a youth representative from the Solomon Islands, does not believe the climate conference could be an exercise in futility.
“If such a huge number of people have come together, what are they here for? They have to do some serious business and reach a consensus”, she said.
Maxlin says food security and people’s livelihoods are threatened by climate change in her country. Referring to this year’s moniker for Copenhagen, “Hopenhagen”, she said: “We think we have come to Hopenhagen, and would not want to leave here without hope of survival.”
She remains optimistic about the outcome of the conference and says: “I think the world will not let us down.”
Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands are both members of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), a group of 42 small island and low-lying coastal nations, which are all vulnerable to rising sea levels.
