Youths of COP: A brief Q&A with people met at COP23.
Q: Please tell me about yourself.
A: I am Muhammad Ibrahim and I come from Egypt. I am now a fifth-year dental student at Mansoura University. I am so passionate about environmental, climate change and sustainable development issues and sharing new ideas and experiences. I worked in lots of NGOs and students clubs which aims at serving the community in the fields I am passionate about.
Q: What inspired you to be involved in the fight against climate change?
A: I started my journey with Climate Change and Sustainable Development in 2015 when I decided to reduce my meat consumption because of the livestock agriculture, which is one of the main reasons of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. I was accepted to participate in an Environmental and Cultural German-Egyptian Exchange Program. I am now the African CliMates Community officer and the COPinMyCity Regional Officer for CliMates, I also work as a member of its Administrative Council.
Q: What are the topics you are following in this COP?
A: My main focus in COP23 was Adaptation; especially the adaptation fund for people who are expected to be Climate refugees if they will not provide with help. I focused on that because I am living in a developing country which will suffer sooner or later from climate change consequences and would like to find an improvement in this sector especially when we are watching this slow progress in the mitigation field. Developing nations are the biggest sufferers from developed countries’ contributions to Climate Change.
Q: How has your work with YOUNGO working group been?
A: We wrote a very strong policy paper to send our message as youths to the COP23 presidency. We wrote about the estimated 200 million people that could be displaced as a result of climate impacts by 2050 and how much is it important to start capacity building and technology transfer from developed nations to developing ones.
Q: What are the key messages you would like to share with youths in general?
A: In general, I would like youth to work more in their countries on increasing awareness and providing education for young people. Maybe climate change will be a very big problem for the next generations, therefore they should be aware enough.
Content and Media Provided by Muhammad Ibrahim
Edited and Arranged by Xiandi
