Wildfires, floods, droughts, even heatwaves, it’s devastating because for each of these crises, there is always a loss of lives and livelihoods.
My name is Oladosu Adenike. I am eco-feminist and climate justice activist. I started the ‘I Lead Climate’ movement to see how we can solve pan-African issues. Advocating majorly on the Lake Chad region. The Lake Chad has shrunk by over 90% and if we do not advocate for this, in the nearest decade, it’s going to dry out.
Once it is dried out, it becomes a big issue that will not affect Nigeria alone. It’s going to affect Niger, Cameroon, Chad, and other Central African countries. Europe and other countries will also not be the same because of displacement, refugee issues that will happen. So in one way or the other, we’re connected to each other.
Young people are doing great things, bringing different initiatives on board but we need support and so we want more young people to be at the decision making table and not on the activist side alone.
In the previous COP, COP 26, not a lot of youth were at the decision table. We had to struggle to get our voice heard. So my message to the young generation is: Keep doing what you are doing. Don’t be discouraged.
When I started the climate justice movement, there was no funding. Even up until now, the funding is not that much but it is something that matters and it’s coming gradually. To the older generations, now it is time for them to support us in our demand.
For accountability, transparency for the change we want. We can do this through collaboration, supporting them (the youth) to get to those points that the voices of the younger ones will be heard..
We cannot wait any longer because the climate crisis is happening every minute, every day, every second, We need to look for the solution as fast as possible. So that everyone , everywhere will be immune to fast happening climate crisis.
