The Importance of Wealth Building for Climate Activists

I think it is really important for young people to build wealth in their youth, so they can be financially empowered to make a difference with their wallets. It is just as equally important to understand finance and what it means in the simplest of terms so that when we enter the negotiation rooms, we understand what is being negotiated and what that translates into in our day-to-day lives.

Remember, wisdom is sometimes hidden in books, but mostly in the knowledge built over time by your immediate neighbor. So as you build your knowledge of finance, observe and learn what is happening in your surrounding. Especially for climate activists, it is really critical to observe what is happening in your ecosystem and immediate environment to determine how that will affect and impact you both in the short and long term.

Hot on Heels at COP 24

I start this blog post with that provocative title because this was literally my experience at my very first COP 24 session in Katowice, Poland. For those who may not understand some of the abbreviations allow me to give a quick intro:

COP – Conference of Parties

UNFCCC – United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

YOUNGO – Youth NGOs also the official youth constituency to the UNFCCC

PAWP – Paris Agreement Work Program

I got into the whole COP negotiations coffee-crazed, sleep deprived, life changing session because of a thing my organization did with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. That is another story for another day. So this thing, allowed me to earn the privilege of participating in the GSCSY (sorry another acronym) short for Global South Climate Scholarship for Youth, where I met amazing youth advocates from all over the world, literally. I am talking three continents from the global south with a rich diversity in culture and the way we all view how climate change affects us.

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