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COP26: Indian Teen Activist Joins Youth in Glasgow Climate Summit
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October 28, 2021
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2:33Now PlayingA 19-year-old Indian climate activist is preparing to attend the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland. Srijani Datta, who spends her free time researching, writing and participating in climate protests, says she looks forward to learning from other young activists from around the world.
The Yamuna River, one of India's longest and most polluted water bodies. Datta is accompanied by her friend and filmmaker Vijay Sehrawat, 26, as they stroll along the banks, picking up trash peppered around the area.
Datta has been an advocate of fighting against climate change since her school days, and is now ready to join serious discussions on climate policy and implementation at the 26th Conference of Parties, or COP26, in Glasgow.
Just weeks from her journey to the biggest climate convention in the world, Datta, who only uses public transport, has a busy pre-summit schedule.
"Today, my day included reading this text on climate negotiations in Delhi. Then I attended a reading so-called which took place right here with a few other environmentalists from my city who were discussing the same text. I was baking for my friends who were going to be here. So that was the good thing that I wasn't thinking about anything," says Datta.
She regularly participates in climate strikes and protests organized by young activists in New Delhi and has had debates and discussions with policymakers on environmental degradation and steps that need to be taken to reverse it.
She's the director of Youth for Climate India, the Indian wing of the global movement led by young activists.
Datta believes more and more young people and children are rising against climate change. Most importantly, they are aware of the time constraints.
"I think the youth is bringing that urgency,'' says Datta.
''I have personally worked with organizations who are completely youth-driven and also organizations which are sort of led by non-youth also. I've seen their difference and I'm not saying that they haven't done good work. They have done some brilliant work and they've paved the path for young activists. But they do not have that sense of urgency is something I believe. You know, it's like, they're like, 'OK, we'll do this, we'll do this later.' But young people are like, 'No, we want action now.' Right? And they are not working for oil companies. They're not working for all these companies. More and more young people are opting for jobs, which allows them their activism."
In India, she has joined a group of activists who are protesting a proposed change in Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) policy that they believe makes it easier for polluting industries to obtain clearances for large-scale projects and lessens public scrutiny of such projects.
The proposed changes received more than two million comments, mostly asking for the withdrawal of the proposal.
Though the Indian government hasn't yet passed the EIA 2020 notification into law, it has made several clearance-related changes to current policy, making it easier for some industries to get approvals.
She hopes India is allotted funds from the $1 billion Adaptation Fund which aims at supporting the most vulnerable countries.
She is particularly interested in seeing how the Indian government manages funds and whether it is able to channel it to the people working for the environment at the grassroots level.
Having quarantined herself a week before her travels, Datta is busy packing and devising discussion strategies to be used at COP26, which begins on October 31 in Glasgow.
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