Last week I was fortunate to go to Indonesia for the British Council Emerging Leaders climate change forum. Two young people from Australia (including myself) were selected to attend this project management and leadership course along with 30 other young leaders from across East Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia). The people I met at this course were inspiring in the actions they were taking to avert dangerous climate change and solve social and environmental problems in their countries.
These included people like Rizal – a young guy from Aceh in North Sumatra, Indonesia. His province has been ravaged by conflict, the tsunami and now increasing deforestation. With many people living in extreme poverty, cutting down the nearby forests is their only source of income. Rizal is working on a project to teach local farmers how to grow organic cocoa, providing an alternative income source to illegal logging. This not only helps stop deforestation, it helps lift people out of poverty and reduce harmful farming practices.
I also met Mita, who is working with poor slum communities in Jakarta to collect plastic rubbish and turn it into high-quality recycled products like handbags. I met great people making their university campuses more sustainable, helping develop corporate social responsibility programs for businesses, and much, much more.
It was inspiring to see that people all over the world are taking action on these important environmental issues. Hopefully we can link up in Poland at COP14 to support each other and assert our collective power to force change on climate change.
