Using the Law to Fix Climate Change
One of several highlights of 2021 for us at COP26andbeyond was being able to share screenings of the short film ‘USING THE LAW TO FIX CLIMATE CHANGE’.
This film was made with expert assistance from Eastside Educational Trust, as part of their ambitious programme of climate and environmental work put together by and with young people. We were privileged at COP26 and beyond to be able to help assemble the people, resources and ideas to put this together.
This built on work that we had done putting on events discussing how young people could get actively involved in using the law to address climate change, at the MOCK COP in November 2020, at the Earth Action Hub, with the Protect Our Planet (POP) Movement and at All4Climate in Milan in September 2021 with our friends and colleagues at IARI.
After much discussion with the team at Eastside, it was decided that the most effective way to present these issues in a short film was to have four young people learning about film-making in East London – Isha Bashir, Ventia Latifah Dickson, Sheyla Justiniano Roca and Zayna Zubair – interviewing four leading young climate activists, who we introduced to the project.
The four climate activists were:
Kevin Mtai
Founder of the Kenya Environmental Action Network
Tom Webster Arbizu
Fridays for the Future member, and one of the teenage plaintiffs in the leading climate case challenging a coal mine extension in Australia, Sharma & Ors v Minister of the Environment
Jodie Bailey-Ho
Project Coordinator at Teach the Future and MOCK COP
Kelo Uchendu
Founder of the Grey2Green Movement in Nigeria, and the Youth Led Climate Justice and Air Quality Campaign.
Having seen it, you will not be surprised by news of the continued successes of the participants! Kevin Mtai has recently won an award as one of the 100 most influential Kenyans. Jodie Bailey-Ho was at COP26 leading and presenting a session on climate education for the Department for Education, including its Permanent Secretary. Tom Webster Arbizu has been working in a Senator’s office in Australia, and has just started a new job with an energy company. Kelo Uchendu was chosen to present the report of the youth participants at COY16 to the President of the UN General Assembly. Participants at the youth led MOCK COP continue to set the pace in addressing climate change around the world.