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The change we want to see is in our hands!

By the Nepal Power Shift Team

Nepal nestles between India and China amidst the Himalayas. The geographic boundary of Nepal starts in the south as low as 70m above sea level in Kanchan Kalan and within a breadth of 200 km ends in the north – as high as 8848m at Mt. Everest. Such dramatic difference in elevation makes Nepal a biodiversity hotspot and also an ethnic melting pot in the region and all this global biodiversity is sure to be lost unless some concrete measure are taken against climate change. On this note, the government and the development partners are concerned in mitigation and adaptation of climate change; programs and projects are being developed accordingly but still information to the youth and their meaningful participation is a far cry. So the question arises as to what’s the solution? As a young generation that is genuinely concerned by climate change, knowledge sharing and capacity building are some of the first steps in building a more aware and sensitive population.

There is an ancient saying in Sanskrit that goes: न चोरहार्यं न च राजहार्यं न भ्रातृभ्राज्यं न च भारकारि। व्यये कृते वर्धत एव नित्यं विद्याधनं सर्वधनप्रधानम्॥

When translated in English, this means: It cannot be stolen by a thief. It cannot taken away by a King. It cannot be divided among brothers. It does not cause load. It always increases when spent. The wealth of knowledge is the greatest of all wealth.

The change we want to see is in our hands.

The change we want to see is in our hands.

In this scenario Power Shift Nepal have gathered forth 100 young people to share personal experiences and knowledge on ways to address climate change. Nepal has come together in this single platform of “I am a Powershifter” to initiate innovative campaigns that acts against climate change, attain knowledge and pass it on to others.

In the words of Niraj Tamrakar, “A couple of months may not be adequate time to bring the change or stop climate change but it’s enough to initiate the change that we want for future.”  For this, “Shifting knowledge is imperative! Although we are generally reluctant to share, we need to shift knowledge to shift power!” stresses Dr. Gajurel, Member Secretary of National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC)

For this resolution, numerous participants from diverse backgrounds have come forward with their interest and have committed to initiate actions to bring changes mainly from five different themes;

1.      Promoting Eco friendly Behavior

2.      Eco friendly Business and Tourism

3.      Promoting Alternative Energy

4.      Research and Policy

5.      Art and Creative Activism: Documentation, Drama and Documentary

Nepal PS2

These five thematic teams have developed their respective action plan during 3 days action planning at Centre for Human Resource Development Unit, which will be executed in coming 2 months. The learning (output) will be shared globally on the 5th of June, 2014 on the occasion of World Environment day to spearhead the climate movement in Nepal.

These plans and activities targeting the people of Nepal includes behavioural change from the school level, initiatives to manage solid waste, research on existing climate change policy and loopholes in its execution, finding and filling gaps for promoting alternative energy, incorporating environment and business for sustainable economy, exploration of success stories of eco-friendly business and documentation of the success stories of climate movements, problems caused by climate change and sharing the issues along with its solutions.

In coming months PowerShift Nepal team will work to achieve the goals and objectives of knowledge sharing, informing and involving youth and policy makers and strengthen the climate movement in Nepal.

Nepal PS3

Power is shifting in Kenya

By Carol Wambui, Kenya Power Shift

Limuru was freezing. 6 degrees for us in the equator like Kenya, this is way too cold. The rains never stopped pounding down on us for the three days almost ruining our fun Power Shift Boot camp.

But we had made the most amazing choices in selecting participants because these 120 young climate leaders from all over the counties of Kenya, celebrated the rain and the cold, debating and exchanging climate change stories till the wee hours each morning, training and learning daily with such jaunty gusto. We trained and learned how to build strong campaigns depending on various issues at our county levels and to stop waiting one more second for leaders.

Ronnie Osumba, the vice-president, Juliani the former Climate Change ambassador for UNEP, Yvonne Maingey, Winnie Asiti from AYICC and a host of other activists came through to offer their guidance at the camp.

In the end, Power is shifting. This time, the youth leaders are at the forefront, negotiating, inventing and encouraging community participation on issues climate and sustainability for their future,


A power shift is happening all over the world

Dear friends,

I will keep this short, as the image below speaks for itself.

Share this infographic on Facebook.

Share this infographic on Twitter.

Global Power Shift is scaling up the climate movement in an unprecedented way — it is sparking climate action all over the world.

After our massive gathering in Istanbul last year to train young leaders in grassroots and climate activism, thousands of youth have joined regional events, organised mobilisations and launched campaigns to fight the climate crisis in country after country — Australia, Ukraine, Canada, Vietnam, France, Kenya, Philippines, Brazil, Egypt, China and India are just some of them. And we’re not done yet — more Power Shifts are planned for the coming months! Check this awesome timeline to see what the teams are up to.

From national summits to months of action, these teams are building innovative, bold climate activism in their regions. They are exposing fossil fuel corporations and pressuring their leaders to take serious action. They are promoting and implementing clean, renewable energy, reaching and engaging frontline communities, and highlighting climate impacts. They’re working with well established partners and articulating effective, coordinated campaigns to tackle climate change. But most of all — they’re taking climate leadership and shifting the power!

There’s still a lot to do and we’re certainly going to see many powerful, inspiring campaigns  sparking across the planet. But we are so excited about how Global Power Shift is moving so far that we wanted to share the news with you. Can you share the infographic with your friends too?

Onwards,

Will


Young Georgians step up against coal and climate change

As IPCC is about to issues its next report cementing scientific evidence of the need to leave fossil fuels in the ground in order to avoid heating our atmosphere to more than 2 degrees C, our friends Nugzar and Tsiako from the Republic of Georgia think of the local anti-coal campaign they help to lead.

Not so much time have passed since Global Power Shift meeting in Istanbul (Turkey), and I remember it very clearly, – says Nugzar. More than 500 people gathered together to think about climate change and the new ways are to fight against it. Then we took the fight back home.

Tsiako cheers up the anti-coal march

Tsiako cheers up the anti-coal march

There are some people who say that climate change is just a fake and a myth. However, every day, every moment we see a lot of new natural catastrophes around the world. We need to find solution and we already found some of them. This is our common effort to unite all young people, all communities and popularize alternative ways of energy production. But, before, we need to unite our human energy to stop fossil fuels industry where it’s possible and work with government, even, impact on government to change policy and start planning everything according to ecological agenda.

After Global Power Shift gathering we started to work on Georgian Power Shift Event, which took place in Tkibuli. Tkibuli is a small city. There were many coal mines there in Soviet period, including 4 big mines. At the moment only one of them works, but working and security conditions are bad, as local people say. Lots of workers have died because there aren’t any standards of production. Another moment is, of course, that this mine poisons the atmosphere. More poison comes, as one of professionals said during Global Power Shift Georgia, from the waste banks – hills of the residues of rock and coal, which lay on the ground and are spread by wind everywhere. It is a problem not just for local people’s health, but it also causes problems for the nature, because it poisons it. The coal which is produced in Tkibuli is highly polluting due to its low quality and the ways of its production aren’t good.

Click More to read the full story.

(more…)


China Youth Carbon Shift is on the Way!

After months preparations and countless meetings since last July, the core group members of China Global Power Shift announced the Phase Two of Global Power Shift in China— China GPS – “China Youth Carbon Shift” has formally begun!

China PS in GZ-3

China power shift core members have settled with a specific agenda for the whole event after several discussions. In the upcoming future, the team will conduct a series of events described as follows. In March and coming April, there will be selectively recruitment for new teams around China and train them through workshops and strategic planning with tools such as the latest carbon accounting manual. The ultimate goals is to prepare them for participation in China Youth Carbon Shift activity series. Those participants of China Power Shift will also serve as an ambassador for the Youth Carbon Shift, spreading the message about this Power Shift project throughout their communities. From April to June, the first stage of China GPS will take off – the team is ready to focus on the campus carbon accounting project, helping those participated teams to form their carbon accounting plan and offering them support for data collection and analysis. The team will be expecting many carbon accounting reports by June!

China PS in GZ

The core members will start off the project with 5 selected regions and cities including Beijing, Tianjin, Guangdong province, Zhejiang Province and Southwest China. The China power shifters hope to expand further once the plan has been successfully carried out in these regions where the team have the most abundant resources.

The next large-scale event for China-GPS will be one of the workshop sessions held in Beijing in mid-April. Twenty teams from universities in Beijing and five to six from other regions are going to be involved in a 1-day China-GPS bootcamp which includes carbon accounting training workshop in the morning and a series of discussions on environmental activism in the afternoon. Topics ranging from climate change to fossil fuels will all be brought to the table during these discussions.

So, cheer for the China Power Shifters! The China Youth Carbon Shift is on its way to an adventurous journey! The team will go all out to take the spirit and passion from the GPS in Turkey to a new level in China to ensure the success of all the Youth Carbon Shift events. China power shifters are certain that with the positive green energy they can attract more and more Chinese youths to join force for this global climate movement.

China PS in GZ-2

Together let’s make a difference!!


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