YPF conducts seminar on Climate Action

Youth Policy Forum (YPF), a new generational think-tank, organized a seminar on "Commonwealth Youth in Climate Action" with the British High Commission in Dhaka & the Commowealth on 28th of March.

The conference brought together over 100  participants from five divisions. Among them were climate activists, environmental researchers, policymakers of three main political parties, and most importantly, the youth.

This seminar was the final event of YPF's month-long initiative "Youth, Climate Action & the Commonwealth" which aimed to celebrate the Commonwealth Day 2022 & its committeement towards climate action. The seminar stated briefly on the outcomes of COP26; highlighted the role of youth to innovate and take part in climate action; and the way forward for making Bangladesh greener and sustainable.

Arfan Uzzaman, Climate Change MRV Expert of FAO of the United Nations, presented the recent findings of the sixth IPCC Assessment Report. He highlighted food security, living standards and governance as vital structural pillars that would need to be strengthened by climate change prone countries around the world.He  also emphasized that Bangladesh needs to enhance water security and become more resilient to even stronger natural cyclones, floods, and droughts. 

A panel of youth activists also underlined their strategy for increasing youth awareness. Fayaz Anam from Bangladesh Youth Environmental Initiative highlighted how olympiads and fellowship programs helped over 10,000 students receive climate change awareness training. Sohanur Rahman from YouthNet for Climate Justice urged and emphasized holding the wealthy nations accountable for their significant contributions to climate change. In the same panel, Nurul Huda Ashrafi from JAAGO Foundation addressed that the aim was to connect to the youth, create awareness, connect to the social leaders, and make people understand how climate change affected everyone. 

Furthermore, Farah Kabir, country director of ActionAid, addressed women's influence on shaping stronger climate change resilience programs. She explained how rural women are at the forefront of climate change and how they are the real agents of change.

Seasoned politicians like Tabith Awal, Tanvir Shakil Joy MP and Shameem Haider Patwari MP also spoke at the conference.