Young students’ commitments to climate action to be presented at COP30
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced Wednesday (Oct. 8) at the 6th National Children and Youth Conference for the Environment that he will take the commitments of children and adolescents to protect the environment to heads of state at the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30). He congratulated the students’ initiative and argued that climate education should be systematized in schools.
“[We have to] ensure that climate education is not something occasional. It should be part of our daily lives, part of our systematic culture,” he said at the event in the city of Luziânia, Goiás state, near the Federal District. The conference runs until October 10.
This year, the conference discusses education and climate justice and is part of Brazil’s preparations for COP30, which takes place in November in the Amazon city of Belém, Pará. The views of children and adolescents will be taken to the Global Ethical Balance, COP30’s social engagement space.
“You’re starting a small revolution in this country,” the president said about the letter handed to him by the students.
“We’re going to have a meeting of heads of state in the city of Belém, and I want to give a letter like this to every foreign president who arrives here in Brazil. I want them to see how politically mature our young people are,” the president promised.
The letter lists the commitments made collectively during the conference.
“We do not believe there are environmental problems – only environmental symptoms of problems caused by humans,” the document says. “That is why we are committed to supporting the struggle and resistance of indigenous peoples, quilombola communities, and family farmers, as their ancestral technologies are essential for any social and environmental transformation,” the text goes on to say.
Also among the commitments are:
- “protecting people and all life on the planet with equity, equality, and inclusion. Climate justice is not just about the environment or the climate;”
- “expanding our risk prevention capacity, recognizing that awareness of different vulnerabilities makes us more human, authentic, and powerful in dealing with the impacts of climate disasters;” and
- “resisting a system that forces people to compete for power and money, generating inequalities and prejudices such as racism, homophobia, exclusion, religious intolerance, and environmental racism.”
The president also highlighted the importance of creating incentives and facilities, also by the government, so that young people can learn about Brazil’s natural riches.
“This is how we develop a sense of nationhood, a sense of citizenship, a sense of sovereignty over our territory, over our things,” he declared.
Commitment
Brazil’s Environment Minister Marina Silva, the creator of the first conference, held in 2003, stressed the students’ commitment to the changes that need to be made to achieve climate balance.
“Instead of telling the president what he should do, you always say what you are doing and what you are committed to doing,” she pointed out.
“Children and teenagers are the best messages we can send to the future. You are the messages being sent to the future. Because, as you said, the future is now, and for that future to be fair, democratic, and sustainable, it is essential that we have a healthy ecosystem,” she added.
The National Children and Youth Conference is an initiative that encourages schools to develop educational programs through research and knowledge production.
This year, 8,732 schools in 2,307 municipalities have been mobilized, with 1,293 schools located in areas of socio-environmental risk and 158 serving students with disabilities.
The Ministry of Education also reports the participation of 1,478 rural schools, 186 indigenous schools, and 139 quilombola schools from all states as well as the Federal District.
The event in Luziânia brings together around 800 people from across Brazil, including child and youth delegates aged 11 through 14, teachers, chaperons, and representatives from state organizing committees.
Over the course of five editions, from 2003 to 2018, the conference has involved more than 20 million people, including children, young people, teachers, and education and environmental managers. It is organized by the Ministries of Education and Environment and Climate Change, in partnership with the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation.
