When it comes to promoting sustainability and environmentalism, young people have a voice, albeit one not always heard in the spaces where it is needed. 

That, according to Gabriel Klaasen of the African Climate Alliance, is why it is important for leaders of communities affected by climate change to engage with young people and other stakeholders before making representations on their behalf. 

“You’ve got to be able to acknowledge … that togetherness. If you go to a certain platform, you engage in certain spaces; it’s not only carrying your message as an individual, but carrying that message of the community — the authentic message of the community that’s well-informed,” he said. 

Klaasen was speaking at the recent Rural Action for Climate Resilience Learning Festival. The event — in Cape Town between 19 and 21 October — brought together 62 community, faith and youth leaders from rural communities in Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and Western Cape. It was organised by the Social Change Assistance Trust, the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute and the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Change can come from the youth within South African communities, said Geronimo de Klerk, a founding member of the Feed the Future NPO. (Photo: Tamsin Metelerkamp)

“[The learning festival] is to involve community members in the fight for human rights and environmental rights that we have in the Constitution, specifically [related to] climate change, because the community voices must be heard,” said Nkosikhulule Nyembezi, a spokesperson for the Rural Action for Climate Resilience project. 

“We are countering a situation where government and other decision-makers have often taken decisions without hearing the people on the ground.” 

On the first day of the festival, Klaasen was joined by Mitchelle Mhaka, another representative of the African Climate Alliance, and Geronimo de Klerk, a founding member of the Feed the Future NPO, in speaking on youth mobilisation with respect to climate change.

Mitchelle Mhaka, a social environmental justice activist and part of the African Climate Alliance, speaks on youth mobilisation with respect to climate change at the Rural Action for Climate Resilience learning festival in Cape Town on 19 October. (Photo: Tamsin Metelerkamp)

Some young people are struggling to “touch base” with the lessons of the past when working towards a better future, said Klaasen. Bridging the gap requires the creation of intergenerational spaces for the exchange of knowledge between younger and older generations.  

“Let’s redevelop this … two-way street of acknowledging each other as we go along. That’s the important part, I have to say, about getting the community voice into policy, as well as how we begin … researching for those solutions that will help us build a better future,” he said. 

Mhaka acknowledged that some young people did not respond to climate change workshops and mobilisations, as they did not identify with the issue. A solution to this could be linking climate change with issues that they did identify with, such as job-seeking. 

“You need to find a way to link the environmental issues or issues around entrepreneurship with this idea of a job seeker,” she said. “They are going to care about work, but now it comes to trying [to get] them to understand how we can fit all of the other conversations under this idea of job creation.”

There is not enough engagement with young people at a local government level, according to Eugene Mapotolo, a project manager and paralegal at the Legal Advice and Development Office in Beaufort West. Mapotolo attended the first Rural Action for Climate Resilience learning festival in Cape Town between 19 and 21 October. (Photo: Tamsin Metelerkamp)

Eugene Mapotolo, a project manager and paralegal at the Legal Advice and Development Office in Beaufort West, told Maverick Citizen that it had been difficult to mobilise young people in his community around the issue of climate change. 

“Because of the socioeconomic challenges that are facing the country, but particularly young people, young people are very frustrated and they feel like there is no tomorrow,” he said.

Mapotolo said that the best way to involve young people in climate change issues had been to pair awareness campaigns with something they were already interested in — music, dance and entertainment. 

“Young people have engaged themselves in the entertainment space, where they organise events, like music or dancing activities. I think that’s how they deal with their stress,” he said.

“We approached them to say that, look, your event, we can partner it with awareness on climate change. So, it’s a safe space.”

This approach had been very successful, he continued. As a next step, there are plans to create videos for the TikTok platform that incorporate the work of young people and climate change messaging.

“Young people are the future. So, of course, they have to be part [of activism],” said Mapotolo.  

“Just continue the activism. Then you will see greener pastures.” DM/MC/OBP