Youth eco-conference calls for change to make UK greener

Today the UK’s top young eco-campaigners called on the UK’s Energy Minister Kwasi Kwarteng MP (pictured left) to implement a range of actions to help keep climate on the national agenda and not be derailed by Covid19.

These young influencers formed the panel at the Youth Against Carbon Conference (YAC Con), organised by insurer Zurich UK. It’s a major new platform to get young voices heard on climate change. The event highlights the essential role young people are playing in the fight to protect the planet.

Priorities identified and agreed on include:

• Removing conflicts of interest from within government, with those responsible for government climate policy not being able to be heavily invested in the fossil fuel industry
• Greater focus on nature and conservation in secondary and heavily urban schools
• A move away from fast fashion by making ‘pre-loved’ clothes more culturally and socially acceptable
• Continued campaigning to keep winning hearts and minds on the war on waste, despite Covid19

These recommendations will be used to produce a Youth Against Carbon Climate Change Action Plan which Zurich UK intends to share and champion to government, as well as to the wider business community, customers and partners.

YAC Con was chaired by BAFTA award-winning TV presenter, Maddie Moate (pictured seated on left), with the lead panellists being:

• Mikaela Loach (22) – An Edinburgh medical student and climate justice and anti-racism activist who has amassed a huge following on Instagram for her campaigning work.
• Mya-Rose Craig (aka Birdgirl) (18) – A prominent naturalist, ornithologist and conservationist, Mya has just returned from an expedition to the Arctic Circle with Greenpeace to investigate climate change. She is also founder of Black2Nature, which seeks to make nature more accessible to Visible Ethnic Minority (VEM) groups.
• Amy and Ella Meek (17 & 15) – Teen eco-warriors and founders of the charity Kids Against Plastic, which is inspiring the nation to take action against plastic pollution.

They were joined by three inspirational teens who have secured their panel places following a competitive process.

These are:

• Lysander Bickham (17), a student and eco-entrepreneur from London, whose business Leo’s Box is the youngest run BCorp in the world.
• Fellow Londoner, Zaqiya Cajee (17 - pictured on right of image), an active campaigner on fast fashion and founder of Swop It Up, an initiative encouraging teens to run clothing exchanges in school.
• Completing the panel is Crawley-based, Mya Bambrick (18, pic centre), a passionate conservationist and wild-life blogger, vlogger and photographer.

Fast fashion was highlighted as a key problem, with attendee Zaqiya Cajee explaining: “Planned obsolescence in clothing needs tackling. This needs to be designed out of clothes, rather than having clothes specifically designing to degrade. And we need to work to ensure pre-loved clothes are an acceptable option. It’s also important we tax the manufacturers, not consumers, if we’re to really affect change.”

Mikaela Loach reflected on her time spent in the rain camped outside the offices of the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy last year to protest about the collusion of the government with the fossil fuel industry. Speaking last night, Mikaela said “Three out of nine of the people on the climate change committee have investments in the fossil fuel industry. If you are investing in the fossil fuel industry, which is destroying the planet, how are you going to be able to put people before profit?”

Fast fashion was highlighted as a key environmental issue, with panellist Zaqiya Cajee explaining: “Planned obsolescence in clothing needs tackling. This needs to be designed out of clothes, rather than having clothes specifically designing to degrade. And we need to work to ensure pre-loved clothes are an acceptable option. It’s also important we tax the manufacturers, not consumers, if we’re to really affect change.”

Ensuring more diversity in the climate change movement was also raised, with Mya-Rose Craig (Birdgirl) highlighting “Diversity is real issue in a lot of western countries, including the UK. The environmental movement is very homogeneous, very white, vey middle class. This (the movement) is not sustainable as you are only hearing from a small group of people.”

Amy and Ella Meek from Kids Against Plastic urged the government and world to keep climate change a top priority. Amy said: “We have seen the world come together to fight coronavirus. Now we need a similar movement to fight the climate crisis.”

Ella went on to stress the importance of staying engaged, suggesting everyone should keep reading up on the issue to build their knowledge and also look at images to drive passion.

The event was attended by UK Energy Minister Kwasi Kwarteng MP, who said: “Tackling climate change is a huge opportunity for young people to get involved in one of the greatest struggles. There’s a long way to go but a growing appreciation of the problem and urgency in tackling it.”

Laura McAlpine, Head of Sustainability at Zurich, who organised the event, added: “Through YAC Con we wanted to offer an opportunity for young eco-campaigners to get their opinions and ideas heard. As an insurer we see first hand the devastating effects of climate change, both here in the UK and globally, on our customers and communities. We take our role in mitigating the risks very seriously and believe we can bring about real change by fuelling the passion and drive of these amazing young people.”

YAC Con builds on Zurich’s existing commitments to reducing its environmental impact and supporting the global transition to a low carbon economy. In 2019, Zurich became the first insurer to sign up to the UN Global Compact Business Ambition Pledge that aims to limit average global temperature increases to 1.5°C. It is also working towards achieving 100% renewable energy across all global operations by 2022.

The event can be watched again on our Zurich UK YouTube channel.

For further information on Sustainability at Zurich:https://www.zurich.com/en/sustainability