Joining hands to make a green difference

Fifty young climate warriors — selected through a nationwide search — were at their entrepreneurial best to build on ideas to reduce climate offence. It all happened at the Brightest Young Climate Leaders (BYCL) Summit held at the British Council.

They are young and keen on making a difference. A green difference.

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And on Wednesday they got cracking on ways to bring in this change.

Fifty young climate warriors — selected through a nationwide search — were at their entrepreneurial best to build on ideas to reduce climate offence. It all happened at the Brightest Young Climate Leaders (BYCL) Summit held at the British Council.

The two-day meet, organised by Arctic Holdings in partnership with Hindustan Times and British Council, is focused

on recognising the best proposition on reducing carbon

footprint.

The winning idea — to be judged on Thursday — will be implemented with the help of Arctic Holding, a carbon management company.

But before they got down to brainstorming, the 50 climate warriors were in for a heady dose of inspiration courtesy Actor Rahul Bose. His advice on converting climate offenders: Create an emotional tug.

“Those 200-odd leaders fail to reach a consensus in Copenhagen because they think that agreeing to any drastic change would make them lose elections back home. It’s your job to create civil society pressure which in turn would propel politicians into action,” Bose said.

While Bose showed ways of convincing others to join the climate movement, Dario-Andri Schwörer, a well-known environment activist from Switzerland, was a strong example of how one should emulate a green life first to inspire others.

A member of the core expedition team of Top To Top (an NGO of climate change volunteers) Schwörer along with his family is on a mission to cover seven seas and seven summits only with the help of renewable energy.

On their way to the final destination, the Schwörer family visits schools and universities in different countries to spread the message of environment conservation.

Till now they have covered over 40 countries only by walking, push biking and sailing.

“We were quite spellbound by Dario’s way of life. It may not be possible to emulate him but he is an inspration,” said Ambika Ghuge(20), a BYCL fellow.