Angry and afraid: B.C. youth call on global leaders to take urgent action on climate change - Action News
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Angry and afraid: B.C. youth call on global leaders to take urgent action on climate change

These Surrey teens spent a summer dodging a deadly virus, choking on wildfire smoke and trying to survive a heat wave that killed hundreds. Now, they have a few things they would like to say to policy-makers dithering on climate action at COP26.

Policy-makers are in Glasgow dithering over climate action. These Surrey teens have some things to tell them

Who says teenagers are hard to wake up in the morning? Dozens of students at Johnston Heights Secondary School in Surrey, B.C., showed up before classes started Tuesday to share their frustrations over what they see as a lack of action from policy-makers on protecting them and their planet. (Jeremy Allingham/CBC)

Many teensin British Columbia spent their summer vacations dodging a deadly virus, breathing dangerouswildfire smoke and trying to stay cool during a heat dome that killed hundreds.

And now thatglobal leadersare gatheredin Glasgow ditheringonclimate action, some of them have a few things they would like to get off their chest.

The United Nations climate summit in Scotland is two weeks of intense negotiations where almost 200 countriesare being asked to come forward with ambitious 2030 emissions reductions targets.

To mark the occasion, CBC's The Early Edition spoke with students atJohnston Heights Secondary School in Surrey about the planet's future and their own.

School staff asked students willingto share their thoughts on climate change to come to the school before classes started on Tuesday.

A handful were expected to show up. Dozens did. And their fear and frustrationswere palpable, as they called on policy-makers to protect the world they will soon inherit.

"At this rate, the planet isn't going to make it," said Richard Chen.

He said this summer was the hottest he had ever experienced and he was horrifiedto see his city smothered under smoke from wildfires on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border.

Surrey student Richard Chen says his city already feels 'completely different' in his lifetime due to climate change contributing to prolonged aggressive wildfire seasons and unprecedented heat waves. (ken Leedham/CBC News)

Chen's message to leaders overseas at COP26 right now is to follow up on their promises, saying that in his lifetime, he has seen a lot of lip service and very little action.

Those leaders are looking for ways tokeep global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5 C this century, as was agreed upon at COP21 in Paris six years ago.

Since then, the world has already warmed by more than 1.1 C and current projections based on planned emissions cuts over the next decade are for it to hit 2.7 C by the year 2100.

Student Hannah Shim called global industry's continued reliance on fossil fuels "greedy and selfish" and said if that doesn't change now, it will be very hard to reverse course in the future.

Hannah Shim says when making climate action decisions, she hopes policy-makers consider everyone's well-being and not just the economy's. (Ken Leedham/CBC News)

"The past few years has been so drastic to our environment and to our lives," said Shim, calling the heat dome and other disasters exacerbated by climate change "a consequence of what we didn't do."

In 2019, Canada's oil and gas sector accounted for 191 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions 26 per cent of the country's total emissions. The country's second largest source of emissions is the transport sector, which emitted 186 megatonnes.

On Monday,Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in Glasgow that Canada will impose a hard cap on emissions from the oil and gas sector, as needed, toreach net-zero emissions by 2050.

Umanga Bajgai says now is not the time for empty promises on climate action from global leaders. If urgent action to reduce global warming is not taken, he says lives will be lost to the catastrophic effects of climate change. (Ken Leedham/CBC News)

Umanga Bajgaisays he'll believe change when he sees it.

Bajgai believes his generation will be caretaking a planet no one really cared for before because promises are continuously made but not acted on.

"We are inheriting a dying planet and all becausethe older generation won't do anything about it," he said.

B.C. university student Marina Melanidis, founder ofYouth4Nature, is in Glasgow and echoed this anger and frustration.

"We hear fancy words all the time, but we haven't seen that translate to action yet. So it is really, really hard to trust that continued rhetoric when we just don't see evidence of actions," she said.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, centre, speaks alongside fellow youth climate activists during a demonstration at Festival Park in Glasgow, Monday, Nov. 1, 2021, on the first day of the COP26 summit. (Andrew Milligan/PA/The Associated Press)

She said it is upsetting and "tokenistic" to often see young people trotted out to give emotive speeches at climate conferences to rooms full of adults who listen and sometimes take zero action.

And while Surrey studentshope COP26 policy-makers hear their message that more needs to be done, Melanidishas a message for those students:leaders will have no choice but to listen to if they stay mad and mobilize.

"Don't let this inaction from our leaders translate into a sort of doom-ism and lack of action from ourselves," she said.

With files from Jeremy Allingham, The Early Edition and John Paul Tasker