Cork student among 500 young people attending first UN Youth Climate Summit in New York
An Irish student activist who has been selected to attend the UN’s first youth climate summit says she hopes young people can convince global leaders to tackle the climate crisis at the scale and pace required to save the planet.
Sarah Collins, 19, from Cork, was speaking after being selected as one of 500 young people from around the world to attend the first UN Youth Climate Summit in New York on September 21.
It will be the largest ever gathering of young climate leaders at the UN and it will be addressed by Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old climate activist whose school climate strikes have ignited a global movement, and who has sailed across the Atlantic on a carbon neutral yacht to attend the event.
The @UN has sent out one boat for each of the 17 sustainable development goal to greet us! Thank you! pic.twitter.com/AU5ZSVj5vD
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) August 28, 2019
More than 7,000 young people aged between 18 and 29 applied to attend and Ms Collins said she was delighted to be one of the selected 500. She was selected after demonstrating commitment to addressing the climate crisis and displaying leadership in advancing solutions.
“The youth of today are the influencers of tomorrow,” she said.
We can make a massive difference if we stand up and shout for what we believe in. We want change and we want it now.
“We will hear first-hand from people directly affected by the climate crisis, we will share that with our leaders, and bring the stories back to our communities to hopefully empower people to make a change.
“There are so many issues affecting Ireland - rising sea levels, increasing rainfall, more intense storms, flooding - I want to let people at the summit know that there are so many young people here who want to bring about change.
We feel empowered now to bring about change.
Ms Collins, from Midleton, said her interest in climate change was nurtured first during her time as a student at Gaelscoil Mhainistir na Corann, and later in Midleton College.
As part of her Leaving Certificate politics and society project, she co-organised a one-day conference in the school after which she was appointed to the youth advisory panel of Plan International, the children's’ rights organisation.
She paid tribute to her politics and society teacher, Bridget O’Riordan, for fostering in her a desire to make change and use her voice.
She sat her Leaving Cert in June and is poised to start a four-year Bachelor of Government and Political Science degree in UCC next month.
