Youth to take the lead during Climate Action Summit and Expo

THE Barbados Youth Climate Action Summit and Expo, which gets underway today, will see young people in Barbados shining the spotlight on a number of climate change-related issues, whilst signalling to policymakers the need to take greater action to address the climate crisis.
The three-day Summit and Expo, the first of its kind to be hosted in Barbados, will serve as a pilot for future summits to come. It commences today July 7th with a march which will be conducted by students and youth groups and preceding that event, 10- year-old Layla Licorish and a team will cycle from the St. John’s Parish Church to the Wildey Gymnasium, in a bid to call attention to specific climate change matters.
Meanwhile, from Friday, July 8th, 2022, commencing at 9:00 a.m., the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre will be the venue for the Expo and thematic panel discussions focussing on “Youth Accelerating Action”, “Resilient Recovery” and “Building a Climate Conscious Community”. All thematic sessions will bring experts and youth together for an intergenerational conversation and the opportunity to create a pathway for shared recommendations and commitment to taking action on climate change.
Speaking with the Barbados Advocate about the Summit and its goals, Ashley Lashley, Founder of The Ashley Lashley Foundation, said the aim is to bring greater national awareness about climate change matters and to also empower local youth, so they can have their voices heard about such matters.
“Our Summit and Expo is essentially geared at bringing that national sensitization and awareness to children and young persons in Barbados about the impact the climate crisis is having on their lives, but it is also geared towards the empowerment of our young persons, on climate related issues,” she revealed.
“For us, we believe that the topic of climate change needs to be a socially relatable topic, because the climate crisis affects each and every one of us and we believe each person has his or her own individual responsibility in fighting the impact of the climate crisis, to make our island become more climate resilient. So our overall objective is to create that national sensitization and awareness amongst our youth population about the impact the climate crisis is having on their lives,” Lashley further commented.
“Also, based upon the outcomes of the Summit and Expo, what we really want to do is to present in the lead up to COP27, which will be held in Egypt of this year, a call to action. In the lead up to that activity, we will be having multiple youth consultations, where we are hoping that the voices of young persons can be heard by government, on issues relating to the environment and how we as young persons can be meaningfully engaged on environmental issues within our country,” she further explained.
Lashley also revealed that during the Summit, there will be a platform for local youth to engage with other climate change activists from across the globe, including Xiye Bastida, a Mexican Climate activist who also serves as co- founder of the Re-Earth Initiative and this will allow for greater exposure and a sense of a shared community, as climate change matters are explored.
(RSM)