A study of Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center (BYLC) and the Centre for Urban Studies (CUS) has found that while 97% of Bangladeshi youth are aware of climate change but only 50% perceive this as a current problem.
BYLC’s study “Youth and climate change: Bangladesh context” was conducted to understand youths’ perspectives on the impact of climate change.
Two thousand youths, aged between 18 and 35, across eight divisions of Bangladesh were surveyed as part of this study.
The findings were presented in a panel conversation on the second day of the Global Youth Climate Summit, where discussants included Dutch Ambassador Harry Verwei, FCDO Development Director Judith Herbertson, and BCAS Director Atiq Rahman.
The study also found that 31% of the youth surveyed are taking initiatives to protect the environment.
When asked about the initiatives youth think they can take, most of them mentioned participating in climate change projects, running awareness campaigns, and joining environmental organisations.
Survey participants were also asked how they could contribute to minimising the effects of climate change.
And 79% of youth said that they can participate in projects on climate change to learn how to create awareness on the issue while 73% said that they could encourage friends, family, and neighbours to take necessary steps.
Also, 47% said they can consider limiting their family size through proper family planning while 14% said they could curb meat consumption.
Besides presenting findings from the Bangladesh study, BYLC also launched a global youth climate pledge at the summit which encourages youth to take action in the fight against climate change. Six hundred youths from more than 80 countries participated in the two-day long virtual summit.
Twelve youth climate champions, representing Bangladesh, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Lebanon, Pakistan, Paraguay, and Somalia, were competitively selected from the delegates and recognised for their ideas to combat climate change at the closing plenary and award ceremony of the summit.
Each of the champions will receive a full scholarship to attend a BYLC leadership course and a $1,000 award for their climate restoration projects.
The Global Youth Climate Summit was organised by BYLC in partnership with the California-based Foundation for Climate Restoration, Resilient Markets, and the Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge.
The media partners of the summit were UNB, the Daily Star, Dhaka FM, and Jamuna TV.
