The youth representatives from global south countries had a clear message for the leaders at COP26, calling for immediate action, rather than making more ‘false promises’.

Young people were key at COP26 who raised their voices to limit climate change.

Kevin Mtai, a climate justice activist, spoke with Pluc.tv to express his disappointment on the results of COP26. 

“For us as youth, we want immediate action, which is now because most of the targets were for 2030.  Why is this leader increasing it to 2070?  Most of the COP it was the same thing.  If this time you are not going to deliver, I think as a youth, we are tired,” said Mtai.

Mtai is a campaigner at @foodatcop along with being the Africa Coordinator at @Earth_Uprising and Co-founder of @kean_network.

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Drought in Africa

The climate activist also highlighted the drought situation in different countries in Africa, which is a direct result of climate change.

The drought is affecting the lives and livelihood of people and education of children.

“Talking about the US, China, one of the biggest emitters of CO2.  And due to that we see countries from the global south suffering.  Talk about Madagascar, part of this year they are suffering from the drought.  Talk about Kenya right now, we have a drought.  Talk about different countries in Africa, they experience floods,” Mtai added.

Why invite fossil fuel companies to COP26?

There was a massive uproar by climate activists when the CEO of the oil company ‘BP’ was part of the climate finance session and announced that the company will curb emissions by 2070.

“There is not anything good coming from these negotiations.  Because, I think it was last week, we had the CEO of BP, who said in one of the sessions of COP that they are going to try their best to reduce their carbon emissions by 2070, which is not a good thing,” Mtai said.

Before the beginning of COP26 there was optimism that global leaders will take some strong steps to fight climate change and make major policy overhauls.  However, those hopes remained unmet.

“This time we believed that we would have the most successful and most productive COP.  But it’s just the same.  Inviting more than 500 delegates from fossil fuel companies and refusing the youth to do some action inside the blue zone, which is not a good thing,” Mtai disappointedly said.

Look to solar for energy needs

“Most of the people are now moving to solar panels because it is cheaper compared to other forms of electricity,” Mtai concluded.