India is on the frontline of climate change, and the children and the youth should take up climate action and change their behaviour to save the planet, says Licypriya Kangujam, the 13-year-old climate change activist from Manipur.
Licypriya who was in the State capital to attend the Kudumbashree’s mission’s two-day International Children’s Summit on Zero Waste Management is emphatic that every little action can make a difference. As there is better awareness of climate change and its impact, the next step could be to plant trees, stop use of single-use plastic, take up cleanliness drives, or have proper waste disposal systems. “If we don’t act now, we will face graver consequences than we face today.”
Licypriya who began climate activism when she was six says age doesn’t matter when it comes to making a difference. She believes that every child can be the change and lead it. “We should all fight climate change together because you or I alone cannot fix this problem.”
In 2023, Licypriya was at COP 28, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, in Dubai, and she disrupted a high-level plenary session frustrated with the inaction on the part of world leaders to end use of fossil fuels. The meet finally closed with an agreement signalling the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era.
To her detractors and those who say she should study and leave climate action to adults, she says if they had done something to combat climate change, she would not have to come out on the streets, hold protests, and raise her voice. “I don’t care about any criticism. I just do what I want to do and go forward with my goals and continue working for the planet.”
Seventeen-year-old Ridhima Pandey’s interest in climate change was triggered by the 2013 floods in Uttarakhand where she lived. The disaster caused her so much anxiety that she had trouble sleeping, fearing for her life and of her loved ones. Around this time, her mother introduced her to global warming and how human activities fuelled it. Ridhima then began reading up and learning more about the climate crisis and its impact, especially on the young generation, and realised that the government was not doing enough to combat it.
In 2017, she filed a petition in the National Green Tribunal that the government was not taking steps against climate change that it had agreed to in the Paris Agreement of 2017. “It was, however, dismissed by the NGT, and I took it to the Supreme Court for reconsideration. In December 2024, the SC assigned the case to a different Bench and appointed an amicus curiae to assist it.”
In 2019, Ridhima filed a complaint at the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child accusing five countries of violating the Convention on the Rights of the Child by not addressing climate crisis. Fifteen other petitioners, including Greta Thunberg, were part of the petition. That petition too was dismissed, though the importance of their case was acknowledged.
Ridhima’s key projects at present include air pollution and plastic pollution. She had launched a campaign ‘Saal Bhar Saath’ to press for the air quality index to remain at 60 throughout the year, and even launched an online petition to seek action on air pollution. However, the lack of response from the authorities to her campaigns has been very frustrating. “We should not be out on the streets, fighting for clean air or water. These are basic rights. People’s representatives are not listening to the people. The future of the country is very worrying,” she says.
Published – January 19, 2025 08:00 pm IST
