Take action on climate change or be voted out of office, young climate activists warn world leaders

Young climate change activists delivered a strong message to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Saturday: If elected officials do not take strong actions to combat climate change, they will be voted out of office.

Guterres gave youth activists the floor at the UN’s first youth climate change summit, an informal event aimed at connecting young activists and entrepreneurs with global leaders to build support for technological and policy solutions to combat climate change ahead of the official Climate Action Summit on Monday.

Emboldened by Friday’s global climate strike, in which millions of young people and adults from Australia to Iceland took off from school or work to demand urgent measures to stop environmental catastrophe, youth activists told Guterres that world leaders who will attend the UN climate summit on Monday cannot ignore the outpouring of youth action, anger and fear.

“We showed that we are united and that we, young people, are unstoppable,” said Greta Thunberg, the 16-year old Swedish climate change activist who inspired the global action through her solitary protests outside the Swedish Parliament last year.

Fijian climate change activist Komal Karishma Kumar complained that world leaders have been negotiating climate change treaties since 1992 without achieving greenhouse gas emission reductions. “We will hold you accountable,” she said. “And if you do not remember we will mobilise to vote you out.”