KT Edit: New generation walks the talk on climate

The Glasgow COP26 Summit — which is incidentally serving a (largely) sustainable menu to delegates from around the world — plans to iron out environmental concerns facing Planet Earth. Big announcements have been made by key players, including the US, China and (host) the UK, and the issue of climate change seems all set to be at a tipping point. Be that as it may, one person has been grabbing headlines on her own dime. Greta Thunberg. The Swedish teenager who’s now become the face of climate change activism for the ‘woke’ generation, has been in the news for organising a sort of an “anti-camp” in the city, and talking about how politicians — or ‘world leaders’ — and people in power who have gathered “are pretending to take our future seriously, pretending to take the present seriously of the people who are being affected already today by the climate crisis…Change is not going to come from inside there. That is not leadership — this is leadership” — and by this she means it is up ordinary folks to be agents of change.

One can be divided in opinion on Thunberg’s brand of “activism”, which, at times, her detractors feel, borders on rabble-rousing, but the larger point she makes about we, the people, being the catalysts for climate change is interesting. The point is underscored by the findings of the Arab Youth Survey that was commissioned in a timely manner so that the results could be released during COP26 — as a reflection of what Arab youths, the future of the Middle Eastern region, feel about this burning issue.

The survey factored in thoughts of 3,400 young Arabs, in the age group of 18 and 24, and their collective response vis-à-vis climate change is hugely positive and a clear indication that this is a region, and a generation, that wants to walk the talk when it comes to saving Planet Earth. Fifty-six per cent — more than half of those surveyed — said they are concerned about the environment and what is being done with it. As a token gesture of wanting to walk the talk, almost two-thirds respondents said they would boycott a brand — however appealing it may be — if its core values are not aligned with sustainability. That is what is called taking ownership. Even before the results came in, the UAE, for instance, has been empowering its future generations with its strong focus on the matter, which is why the GCC comes up trumps in the region: almost four out of five young people feel that the government is leading from the front when it comes to environmental legislation.

• Dubai