“…effective global change begins at the community level”

ACCORDING TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS, climate action means stepped-up efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-induced impacts. This may include;

• Climate-related hazards in all countries,
• Integrating climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning,
• Improving education, awareness-raising, human and institutional capacity concerning climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning.

Climate action encompasses the re-enforcing and preventive measures towards rising the earth’s temperature and curbing existing damages.

In all issues especially climate change, effective global change begins at the community level. For every decision that was taken as a nation, community action must be sought after. With various communities all playing their part towards achieving a common goal, the entire process is amplified several folds to achieve the desired effects within a shorter time.

Community participation involves deliberation with community heads, leaders, or household representatives. To build an effective action plan, every demographic in the community must be taken into consideration.

In a growing population like ours, youths make up a larger percentage of the population. They form the active sector. Their agility, liveliness and innovation, and potential to mobilize the other community members into taking due and effective action are well documented. They can take up tasks and projects effectively with a high level of energy and zeal. Recruiting youth engagement to climate action would help to affect the needed approaches towards reversing, or at least reducing, the effects of climate change in our world today.

To effect community change, the public must first be educated about the damage caused by harmful daily activities leading to global warming.

Also, the damage done by these conscious and unconscious acts should be emphasized. These campaigns would encourage the involvement of members of the community in adhering to the preventive measures for global warming. This method will help raise public awareness about the global implications of greenhouse gases on climate change.

“To effect community change, the public must first be educated about the damage caused by harmful daily activities leading to global warming”

THERE ARE SEVERAL environmental issues that young persons can collectively help to solve―deforestation is one of them. Deforestation has accounted for a considerable quota of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere. It is estimated that 45% of all carbon dioxide on land is stored in trees and forest soil. When trees are felled, it disrupts soil structure and function and releases carbon dioxide. Soils globally contain more carbon than all plants and the atmosphere put together. If the youths set in place “collective activities” of planting trees and discouraging excessive tree felling while acting as examples to society, members will soon begin to follow up with similar actions.

Every effect of climate action within a community is significant. Though this may be minimal and vague, consistent contribution effort at each community level to effect climate action participation will have increasingly significant effects over time.

When every nation joins together, we can halt and even reverse global warming by effective community action.

The youths form an instrumental and influential aspect of every society. And they can act as a driving force in delivering the goal of achieving climate action. This is a collective action that involves individuals while starting from the community. The need for climate action cannot be overemphasized, given that global warming leads to climate changes that are detrimental to millions of lives and properties.