AFP UK

Thousands of youth descended on the Scottish city of Glasgow on Friday to protest what they say is a dangerous lack of action by leaders at the COP26 climate summit.

Two days of demonstrations are planned to highlight the disconnect between the glacial pace of emissions reductions and the climate emergency already swamping countries across the world.

Large crowds organised by the Fridays for Future global strike movement began marching through Glasgow city centre, with high-profile campaigners Greta Thunberg and Vanessa Nakate expected to attend.

“I’m hoping that today will make a change,” said Zara, aged 9, who joined the march with her mother. 

“I’m hopeful planting more trees could happen. And more animals. I think every single person can make a difference.”

Delegates from nearly 200 countries are in Glasgow to hammer out how to meet the Paris Agreement goals of limiting temperature rises to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius. 

The UN-led process requires countries to commit to ever-increasing emissions cuts, and enjoins richer, historical emitters to help developing countries fund their energy transformations and deal with climate impacts. 

Countries issued two additional pledges on Thursday to reduce their fossil fuel consumption. 

Twenty nations including major financiers the United States and Canada promised to end overseas fossil fuel funding by the end of 2022.

And over 40 countries pledged to phase out coal — the most polluting fossil fuel — although details were vague and a timeline for doing so not disclosed. 

The promises followed a major assessment that showed global CO2 emissions are set to rebound in 2021 to pre-pandemic levels.

Thunberg herself was not impressed, tweeting after the twin announcements: “This is no longer a climate conference. This is a Global North greenwash festival.”

– ‘Take responsibility’ – 

Experts say a commitment made during the high-level leaders’ summit at the start of COP26 by more than 100 nations to cut methane emissions by at least 30 percent this decade will have a real short-term impact on global heating. 

But environmental groups pointed out that governments, particularly wealthy polluters, have a habit of failing to live up to their climate promises. 

“On Monday, I stood in front of world leaders in Glasgow and asked them to open their hearts to the people on the frontlines of the climate crisis,” said Kenyan activist Elizabeth Wathuti, who addressed the conference’s opening plenary. 

“I asked them to take their historic responsibility seriously and to take serious action here. So far they haven’t.”

Countries came into COP26 with national climate plans that, when brought together, put Earth on course to warm 2.7C this century, according to the UN. 

With just 1.1C of warming so far, communities across the world are already facing ever more intense fire and drought, displacement and economic ruin wrought by our heating climate. 

“Scientists have done what they need to do, they’ve told us about the problem. Young people have done what they need to do by calling attention to this issue,” said Natalie Tariro Chido Mangondo, a Zimbabwean climate and gender advocate. 

“And it’s just up to our leaders to get their act together.”

Security was heightened on Friday morning in Glasgow’s city centre, as conference attendees were warned of road closures and traffic disruption.

Campaigners say they expect up to 50,000 demonstrators in the Scottish city on Saturday as part of a global round of climate protests.

Summit organisers on Thursday confirmed that there had been a number of positive Covid-19 tests among attendees, but have said they will not provide figures on how many.

Thousands of youth activists were descending on the Scottish city of Glasgow on Friday to protest what they say is a dangerous lack of action by leaders at the COP26 climate summit. 

Two days of demonstrations are planned to highlight the disconnect between the glacial pace of emissions reductions and the climate emergency already swamping countries across the world.

Organisers of the Fridays for Future global strike movement said they expected large crowds at Friday’s three-hour protest during COP26 “Youth Day”, which will be attended by high-profile campaigners Greta Thunberg and Vanessa Nakate.

“This UN Climate Summit, we’re once again seeing world leaders saying big words and big promises,” said Mitzi Jonelle Tan, a climate justice activist from the Philippines.

“We need drastic carbon dioxide emission cuts, reparations from the Global North to the Global South to use for adaptation and to manage loss and damages, and we need to put an end to the fossil fuel industry.”

Delegates from nearly 200 countries are in Glasgow to hammer out how to meet the Paris Agreement goals of limiting temperature rises to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius. 

The UN-led process requires countries to commit to ever-increasing emissions cuts, and enjoins richer, historical emitters to help developing countries fund their energy transformations and deal with climate impacts. 

Countries issued two additional pledges on Thursday to reduce their fossil fuel consumption. 

Twenty nations including major financiers the United States and Canada promised to end overseas fossil fuel funding by the end of 2022.

And over 40 countries pledged to phase out coal — the most polluting fossil fuel — although details were vague and a timeline for doing so not disclosed. 

The promises followed a major assessment that showed global CO2 emissions are set to rebound in 2021 to pre-pandemic levels.

– ‘Take responsibility’ – 

Experts say a commitment made during the high-level leaders summit at the start of COP26 by more than 100 nations to cut methane emissions by at least 30 percent this decade will have a real short-term impact on global heating. 

But environmental groups pointed out that governments, particularly wealthy polluters, have a habit of failing to live up to their climate promises. 

“On Monday, I stood in front of world leaders in Glasgow and asked them to open their hearts to the people on the frontlines of the climate crisis,” said Kenyan activist Elizabeth Wathuti, who addressed the conference’s opening plenary. 

“I asked them to take their historic responsibility seriously and to take serious action here. So far they haven’t.”

Countries came into COP26 with national climate plans that, when brought together, put Earth on course to warm 2.7C this century, according to the UN. 

With just 1.1C of warming so far, communities across the world are already facing ever more intense fire and drought, displacement and economic ruin wrought by our heating climate. 

“Scientists have done what they need to do, they’ve told us about the problem. Young people have done what they need to do by calling attention to this issue,” said Natalie Tariro Chido Mangondo, a Zimbabwean climate and gender advocate. 

“And it’s just up to our leaders to get their act together.”

Security was heightened on Friday morning in Glasgow’s city centre, as conference attendees were warned of road closures and traffic disruption.

Campaigners say they expect up to 50,000 demonstrators in the Scottish city on Saturday as part of a global round of climate protests.

Summit organisers on Thursday confirmed that there had been a number of positive Covid-19 tests among attendees, but have said they will not provide figures on how many.

Thousands of youth activists were descending on the Scottish city of Glasgow on Friday to protest what they say is a dangerous lack of action by leaders at the COP26 climate summit. 

Two days of demonstrations are planned to highlight the disconnect between the glacial pace of emissions reductions and the climate emergency already swamping countries across the world.

Organisers of the Fridays for Future global strike movement said they expected large crowds at Friday’s three-hour protest during COP26 “Youth Day”, which will be attended by high-profile campaigners Greta Thunberg and Vanessa Nakate.

“This UN Climate Summit, we’re once again seeing world leaders saying big words and big promises,” said Mitzi Jonelle Tan, a climate justice activist from the Philippines.

“We need drastic carbon dioxide emission cuts, reparations from the Global North to the Global South to use for adaptation and to manage loss and damages, and we need to put an end to the fossil fuel industry.”

Delegates from nearly 200 countries are in Glasgow to hammer out how to meet the Paris Agreement goals of limiting temperature rises to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius. 

The UN-led process requires countries to commit to ever-increasing emissions cuts, and enjoins richer, historical emitters to help developing countries fund their energy transformations and deal with climate impacts. 

Countries issued two additional pledges on Thursday to reduce their fossil fuel consumption. 

Twenty nations including major financiers the United States and Canada promised to end overseas fossil fuel funding by the end of 2022.

And over 40 countries pledged to phase out coal — the most polluting fossil fuel — although details were vague and a timeline for doing so not disclosed. 

The promises followed a major assessment that showed global CO2 emissions are set to rebound in 2021 to pre-pandemic levels.

– ‘Take responsibility’ – 

Experts say a commitment made during the high-level leaders summit at the start of COP26 by more than 100 nations to cut methane emissions by at least 30 percent this decade will have a real short-term impact on global heating. 

But environmental groups pointed out that governments, particularly wealthy polluters, have a habit of failing to live up to their climate promises. 

“On Monday, I stood in front of world leaders in Glasgow and asked them to open their hearts to the people on the frontlines of the climate crisis,” said Kenyan activist Elizabeth Wathuti, who addressed the conference’s opening plenary. 

“I asked them to take their historic responsibility seriously and to take serious action here. So far they haven’t.”

Countries came into COP26 with national climate plans that, when brought together, puts Earth on course to warm 2.7C this century, according to the UN. 

With just 1.1C of warming so far, communities across the world are already facing ever more intense fire and drought, displacement and economic ruin wrought by our heating climate. 

“Scientists have done what they need to do, they’ve told us about the problem. Young people have done what they need to do by calling attention to this issue,” said Natalie Tariro Chido Mangondo, a Zimbabwean climate and gender advocate. 

“And it’s just up to our leaders to get their act together.”

Security was heightened on Friday morning in Glasgow’s city centre, as conference attendees were warned of road closures and traffic disruption.

Campaigners say they expect up to 50,000 demonstrators in the Scottish city on Saturday as part of a global round of climate protests.

Wearing a confident smile and an oversized hoodie, 12-year-old Francisco Javier Vera climbed onto a table and told cheering COP26 protesters of the activism that has earned him death threats.

The bespectacled school boy has become something of a sensation in his native Colombia, where he has earned a following for his charismatic championing of the environment and human rights.

Francisco, who stands just 1.4 metres (4 feet and six inches) tall, does not think his youth should diminish his voice.

“Regardless of what people say, that boys and girls are the future, I believe we are the present, we are the present and we have an opinion and a voice as citizens,” he told AFP.

“But they don’t allow us to express it.” 

He speaks quickly and passionately, with dramatic gesticulation to emphasise his point: there are few other children at the COP26 venue. 

– Thinking big – 

Francisco became an environmental activist at the age of nine, in March 2019, when he saw images of wildfires scorching across the Amazon and the forests of Australia. 

Inspired by the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and by Pakistani education rights champion Malala Yousafzai, he announced to his parents that he wanted to found a movement. 

“When I arrived home that night, he had already compiled a whole database of contacts for people in the neighbourhood,” said his mother Ana Maria Manzanares, a social worker. 

She has since quit her job to devote time to supporting her son.

His father, a lawyer, initially objected fearing repercussions, but relented and ended up buying his son a megaphone. 

Francisco began small. 

He and six friends gave a speech outside the mayor’s office in Villeta, his small town in the department of Cundinamarca, about 90 km from Bogota. 

Francisco, who has an eloquence beyond his years, was already accustomed to public speaking, having given a talk to older children about the astrophysicist Stephen Hawking when he was eight.

“Many people ask if I have been trained to speak in this way, or to improve my vocabulary, but I think the most important thing is to let your ideas flow,” he said.  

His group has grown, with about 400 children now involved, organising Friday civic action, like litter picking. 

By December 2019, just months after he decided to become an activist, he was delivering a speech to the Colombian Senate against fracking and single-use plastics. 

The unruly legislators drummed on their chairs to show their disapproval, he said. 

Nevertheless, Francisco is increasingly invited to take part in events with figures such as the Timorese Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta.

– ‘A totally normal boy’ – 

He has skipped school to travel to COP26, but said he preferred “to miss a week of class to be with all the presidents of the planet”.

“Greta said if we have neither a present nor a future we will not be able to study, so this is a priority,” he said of the climate change conference.

He is attending the gathering as a “goodwill ambassador” for the European Union’s Euroclima+ programme, which promotes sustainability in Latin America. 

Speaking at COP26 “is very different from living where climate change is happening,” he said, adding that even during his short life he has seen biodiversity loss in the lush Villeta waterfalls region.

World leaders must focus “not only on climate but for a dignified life, an education, health, human rights”, he said. 

“It saddens me that politicians do not listen to citizens.” 

His mother acts as a “containment barrier” against the avalanche of people who approach him. 

He has received death threats online for asking for connectivity for all children so that they could study at a distance. 

“In Colombia one always knows that this is a possibility”, said Ana Maria. 

Francisco does not want to talk about the threats, but he said the response from allies was a chance to “see that you have support”. 

When he grows up he wants to be a politician. 

But in the meantime he said his hobbies include playing basketball with his friends and loves video games like Minecraft, and Assassin’s Creed, like “a totally normal boy”.

Thousands of youth activists were preparing to descend on Glasgow on Friday to protest against what they say is a dangerous lack of action by leaders at the COP26 climate summit. 

Demonstrations are expected across the Scottish city to highlight the disconnect between the glacial pace of emissions reductions and the climate emergency already swamping countries across the world.

Organisers of the Fridays for Future global strike movement said they expected large crowds at the planned three-hour protest during COP26 “Youth Day”, which will be attended by high-profile campaigners Greta Thunberg and Vanessa Nakate. 

“This UN Climate Summit, we’re once again seeing world leaders saying big words and big promises,” said Mitzi Joelle Tan, a climate justice activist from the Philippines. 

“We need drastic carbon dioxide emission cuts, reparations from the Global North to the Global South to use for adaptation and to manage loss and damages, and we need to put an end to the fossil fuel industry.”

Delegates from nearly 200 countries are in Glasgow to hammer out how to meet the Paris Agreement goals of limiting temperature rises to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius.

The UN-led process requires countries to commit to ever-increasing emissions cuts, and enjoins richer, historical emitters to help developing countries fund their energy transformations and deal with climate impacts. 

Countries issued two additional pledges on Thursday to reduce their fossil fuel consumption. 

Twenty nations including major financiers the United States and Canada promised to end overseas fossil fuel funding by the end of 2022.

And over 40 countries pledged to phase out coal — the most polluting fossil fuel — although details were vague and a timeline for doing so not disclosed. 

Thunberg was unimpressed, tweeting: “This is no longer a climate conference. This is a Global North greenwash festival.”   

– ‘Take responsibility’ – 

Experts say a commitment made during the high-level leaders summit at the start of COP26 by more than 100 nations to cut methane emissions by at least 30 percent this decade will have a real short-term impact on global heating. 

But environmental groups pointed out that governments, particularly wealthy polluters, have a habit of failing to live up to their climate promises. 

“On Monday, I stood in front of world leaders in Glasgow and asked them to open their hearts to the people on the frontlines of the climate crisis,” said Kenyan activist Elizabeth Wathuti, who addressed the conference’s opening plenary. 

“I asked them to take their historic responsibility seriously and to take serious action here. So far they haven’t.”

Countries came into COP26 with national climate plans that, when brought together, puts Earth on course to warm 2.7C this century, according to the UN. 

With just 1.1C of warming so far, communities across the world are already facing ever more intense fire and drought, displacement and economic ruin wrought by our heating climate. 

“We are tired of fighting against the current ‘normal — the ‘normal’ we have is unviable, unsustainable and not enough,” said Kenyan activist Kevin Mtai. 

“We need to change.”

Highways and school playgrounds in Beijing were closed Friday due to heavy pollution, as China ramps up coal production and faces scrutiny of its environmental record at make-or-break international climate talks.

World leaders have gathered in Scotland this week for COP26 negotiations billed as one of the last chances to avert catastrophic climate change, though Chinese President Xi Jinping made a written address instead of attending in person.

China — the world’s largest emitter of the greenhouse gases responsible for climate change — has ramped up coal output after supply chains in recent months were roiled by an energy crunch owing to strict emissions targets and record prices for the fossil fuel.

A thick haze of smog blanketed swathes of northern China on Friday, with visibility in some areas reduced to less than 200 metres (yards), according to the country’s weather forecaster.

Schools in the capital — which will host the Winter Olympics in February — were ordered to stop physical education classes and outdoor activities.

Stretches of highways to major cities including Shanghai, Tianjin and Harbin were closed due to poor visibility.

Pollutants detected Friday by a monitoring station at the US embassy in Beijing reached levels defined as “very unhealthy” for the general population.

Levels of small particulate matter, or PM 2.5, which penetrate deep into the lungs and cause respiratory illnesses, hovered around 230 — far above the WHO recommended limit of 15.

Authorities in Beijing blamed the pollution on a combination of “unfavourable weather conditions and regional pollution spread” and said the smog was likely to persist until at least Saturday evening.

But the “root cause of smog in north China is fossil fuel burning,” said Greenpeace East Asia climate and energy manager Danqing Li.

China generates about 60 percent of its energy from burning coal.

– Increasingly rare –

China has increased coal output to ease an energy shortage that had forced factories to close in recent months.

Average daily coal production in the middle of October was 1.1 million tonnes higher than the end of September, according to a Sunday statement by the country’s top economic planning body.

National coal stores hit 112 million tonnes earlier this week, a “normal level for the average year”, the agency said Thursday.

Like many places in rapidly industrialising China, Beijing is no stranger to air pollution — though severe smog episodes have become less frequent in recent years as authorities have increasingly prioritised environmental protection.

“The air in the last few years has been excellent, with very little smoggy weather,” Beijing resident Song Ximeng told AFP. 

“This only happens very rarely.”

In his COP26 statement, Xi urged developed countries to provide more climate change support to developing nations, but stopped short of making any significant new commitments from China.

Beijing has already pledged to bring emissions of planet-heating carbon dioxide to a peak by 2030 and reduce them to net zero by 2060.

China hit back Wednesday at criticism by Joe Biden, saying “actions speak louder than words” after the US president accused Beijing of not showing leadership to combat climate change.

Thousands of youth activists were preparing to descend on Glasgow on Friday to protest against what they say is a dangerous lack of action by leaders at the COP26 climate summit. 

Demonstrations are expected across the Scottish city to highlight the disconnect between the glacial pace of emissions reductions and the climate emergency already swamping countries across the world.

Organisers of the Fridays for Future global strike movement said they expected large crowds at the planned three-hour protest during COP26 “Youth Day”, which will be attended by high-profile campaigners Greta Thunberg and Vanessa Nakate. 

“This UN Climate Summit, we’re once again seeing world leaders saying big words and big promises,” said Mitze Joelle Tan, a climate justice activist from the Philippines. 

“We need drastic carbon dioxide emission cuts, reparations from the Global North to the Global South to use for adaptation and to manage loss and damages, and we need to put an end to the fossil fuel industry.”

Delegates from nearly 200 countries are in Glasgow to hammer out how to meet the Paris Agreement goals of limiting temperature rises to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius. 

The UN-led process requires countries to commit to ever-increasing emissions cuts, and enjoins richer, historical emitters to help developing countries fund their energy transformations and deal with climate impacts. 

Countries issued two additional pledges on Thursday to reduce their fossil fuel consumption. 

Twenty nations including major financiers the United States and Canada promised to end overseas fossil fuel funding by the end of 2022.

And over 40 countries pledged to phase out coal — the most polluting fossil fuel — although details were vague and a timeline for doing so not disclosed. 

Thunberg was unimpressed, tweeting: “This is no longer a climate conference. This is a Global North greenwash festival.”   

– ‘Take responsibility’ – 

Experts say a commitment made during the high-level leaders summit at the start of COP26 by more than 100 nations to cut methane emissions by at least 30 percent this decade will have a real short-term impact on global heating. 

But environmental groups pointed out that governments, particularly wealthy polluters, have a habit of failing to live up to their climate promises. 

“On Monday, I stood in front of world leaders in Glasgow and asked them to open their hearts to the people on the frontlines of the climate crisis,” said Kenyan activist Elizabeth Wathuti, who addressed the conference’s opening plenary. 

“I asked them to take their historic responsibility seriously and to take serious action here. So far they haven’t.”

Countries came into COP26 with national climate plans that, when brought together, puts Earth on course to warm 2.7C this century, according to the UN. 

With just 1.1C of warming so far, communities across the world are already facing ever more intense fire and drought, displacement and economic ruin wrought by our heating climate. 

“We are tired of fighting against the current ‘normal — the ‘normal’ we have is unviable, unsustainable and not enough,” said Kenyan activist Kevin Mtai. 

“We need to change.”

A ground-breaking vaccine against malaria has stoked hopes in Africa of rolling back a disease that claims hundreds of thousands of lives a year, many of them youngsters.

Since 2019, Ghana, Kenya and Malawi have immunised more than 800,000 children under a pilot programme using the RTS,S vaccine.

It is the first to show significant protection against the parasite-borne disease, cutting the risk of severe malaria by 30 percent, trials have shown.

On October 9, the World Health Organization (WHO), after sifting through the results of the pilot scheme, recommended the vaccine for children aged above five months in locations with malaria risk.

Some 260,000 children under five die from malaria each year in Africa, which accounts for about 90 percent of the global caseload.

“From a scientific perspective this is a massive breakthrough,” said Pedro Alonso, director of the WHO Global Malaria Programme.

Djermakoye Hadiza Jackou, coordinator of Niger’s National Malaria Control Programme (PNLP), said the WHO announcement was “welcomed with great joy.”

“This is something that was eagerly awaited.”

– ‘Super excited’ – 

Pointing to a major issue in vaccine rollouts, the WHO said it found “strong” public demand for the jab. The vaccine is made by the British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), with the commercial name of Mosquirix.

Many parents who spoke to AFP also warmly supported the vaccine, although some were hesitant about possible side effects.

“I’m super excited about it,” said Hajia Aminu Bawa in southern Ghana’s Gomoa region, the mother of an 11-month-old girl.

“My child took the vaccine and nothing happened… I want to encourage every family with children below age two to go for the vaccine because it will go a long way to save lives.”

The vaccine aims to trigger the immune system to defend against the first stages of malaria. 

The WHO says that the main side effects can include soreness at the injection site and fever, a similar reaction seen in other vaccines given to children.

Prince Gyamfi, the mother of a six-month-old boy in Gomoa, said she didn’t hesitate to get her child vaccinated. 

“I have read about vaccines and how they work. I voluntarily came to vaccinate my child and so far nothing has happened,” she said. 

“Some people discouraged me from giving him the vaccine because they said it’s new and can kill him but I think they said it out of ignorance.”

In Niger, which was not included in the pilot programme, AFP spoke to a mother named Fati, who was waiting outside a private clinic in Niamey, where her child was hospitalised with a new bout of malaria.

“When the vaccine arrives, it will be a great relief,” she said. 

“Malaria kills our children and it doesn’t spare their parents, either.”

– Unhealthy conditions –

In neighbouring Burkina Faso, another vaccine developed by Britain’s University of Oxford in cooperation with the US firm Novavax has also shown promising effectiveness after a clinical trial in 2019.

But Niger’s Jackou and others cautioned against reliance on just a partial vaccine shield.

It is crucial to maintain time-honoured prevention techniques such as distributing insecticide-treated bed nets and early use of drugs to treat infection, they said.

In Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou, these methods have been widely introduced since 2014, “reducing malaria-linked deaths by 25 to 30 percent,” said Wilfried Sawadogo, a local doctor.

Another enduring problem in malarial regions in sub-Saharan Africa is drainage — fighting the conditions that enable the Anopheles mosquito to breed and spread the parasite when it bites a human for a meal.

“If we die of malaria in Africa, it is because we live in totally unhealthy conditions, which means mosquitoes,” said Ousmane Danbadji, a sanitation specialist in Niger.

– Who will pay? –

The WHO announcement has raised the big issues of access to money and technology.

“Who is going to finance (a rollout)? Is the international community willing? That’s the first question. And will there be sufficient quantities?” asked Serge Assi, a researcher at the Pierre Richet Institute in Bouake in central Ivory Coast.

Christian Happi, director of the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases in Ede, southwest Nigeria, said it was time for Africa to manufacture the vaccine and not just buy it.

“It is now up to Africa to grasp this technology, this knowledge, and produce vaccines rather than import them,” he said. 

“This is a major challenge.”

From Bangladesh to Britain to Nigeria, many young campaigners on the frontlines of the global fight for climate justice now face a new problem: the impact the crisis is having on their mental health.

As thousands of delegates converged at the COP26 summit in Glasgow to discuss ways to tackle the environmental emergency, AFP interviewed three youth activists around the world who spoke candidly of their experience of climate anxiety.

In Bangladesh, ranked seventh for countries most affected by extreme weather, activist Sohanur Rahman said he feels overwhelmed with concern over what he sees as a lack of political will to stop the destruction.

“(The) climate crisis is to me a mental stress, trauma and nightmare,” says the 24-year-old, who now lives in the town of Barisal and who remembers a 2007 super cyclone that killed thousands of people in the South Asian nation.

“It kills me inside,” he says softly, adding that he fears for his parents who live in the village of Nathullabad that was levelled by the cyclone.

– ‘Environmental doom’ –

The American Psychological Association has described climate or eco-anxiety as a “chronic fear of environmental doom”.

As with other forms of anxiety, living with it long-term can impair people’s daily ability to function, while exacerbating underlying mental health issues.

Researchers have warned children and young people are particularly vulnerable, as they contemplate a future mired with scorching heatwaves, devastating floods and storms, and rising seas.

A recent report led by researchers at the University of Bath in Britain, surveying 10,000 young people in 10 countries, found that 77 percent viewed the future as frightening because of climate change.

Around half of the respondents told researchers their fears over environmental change were affecting their daily lives.

– Fear, anxiety, anger –

Speaking to AFP in London, activist Dominique Palmer said: “I’m looking at the future, and what we face in the future, and there is a lot of fear and anxiety. And there is anger.

“Young people, myself included, feel betrayed by world leaders,” the 22-year-old said at a climate protest ahead of the COP26 summit.

To deal with her anxiety, she campaigns.

“Sometimes it can feel quite hopeless until I am back and organising with my community,” she said.

In Johannesburg, clinical psychologist Garret Barnwell showed sympathy and understanding for the young people facing difficult emotions over the crisis.

“It’s a reality that children are facing this changing world. They’re experiencing fear, anger, hopelessness, helplessness,” Barnwell said.

The pressures of climate change also amplify pre-existing social injustices, he said, so younger generations are not only concerned about the environment but also, for example, healthcare access.

Yet despite this, when young people articulate their fears to adults such as teachers, often they find their feels are “invalidated”, Barnwell added.

He welcomed the growing global awareness of climate anxiety, adding that while therapy can be helpful ultimately what is needed was political action.

– ‘We bear the burden’ –

But in the eyes of many young activists, that concrete action is lacking.

At the COP26 summit, dozens of countries this week joined a United States and European Union pledge to cut methane emissions.

The initiative, which experts say could have a powerful short-term impact on global heating, followed an agreement by 100 nations to end deforestation by 2030.

But a simmering diplomatic spat between the United States, China and Russia over their climate action ambitions showed the fragile nature of the talks.

“The previous COP, COP25, really sort of brought out this eco-anxiety I felt,” said eco-feminist Jennifer Uchendu, 29, in Lagos.

She said she believed climate anxiety was especially an issue for younger people growing up in nations disproportionately affected by climate change.

“We bear the burden of climate change, even though we contributed the least to it,” she said, a frown creasing her face.

Uchendu said that rather than bury her fears, she tries to accept them as valid.

“It’s OK to feel overwhelmed,” she said.

“It’s OK to be afraid, scared and even anxious in the face of something so big and so overwhelming.”

burs-rbu/ser

New Delhi woke up to a thick blanket of toxic smog on Friday after an overnight barrage of firecrackers for the Hindu festival of Diwali in the Indian megacity, despite a ban on selling them.

At various hotspots, levels of harmful PM 2.5 particles topped 400 on average on the air quality index.

The figure is more than 15 times higher than the safe daily limit set by the World Health Organization.

India’s top court has banned the sale of firecrackers in Delhi and the local government urged people to celebrate Diwali without them.

But many of the capital’s roughly 20 million residents still got hold of them, setting them off all over the city until the early hours of the morning for the annual Festival of Lights.

Firecracker smoke combines with industrial and vehicle emissions and farm fires to create a putrid grey-yellow soup that envelops Delhi and other Indian cities in winter.

Sandeep, a Delhi resident, told AFP on Friday he did not think the government was doing enough to counter the pollution challenge.

“I think a great deal (more) needs to be done,” he said while on a morning walk at Delhi’s Lodhi Gardens.

“Not only are we coughing more, we are getting irritation in the throat and catching cold more easily.”

A 2020 report by Swiss organisation IQAir found 22 of the world’s 30 most polluted cities were in India, with Delhi ranked the most polluted capital globally.

The same year, the Lancet said 1.67 million deaths were attributable to air pollution in India in 2019, including almost 17,500 in the capital.