How does climate change impact young people and migration?

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00:00been saying COP 29 has been taking place all this week in Baku in Azerbaijan. Dozens of world leaders

00:08have been gathering to discuss how they might combat the challenge and we'll be discussing

00:13the issue with our guest tonight here on France 24. He is Akash Ranasan who is a climate activist

00:20and social entrepreneur. Also I think the author of the book I'm a Climate Optimist, Mr. Ranasan,

00:28that's a good thing to be. You've won numerous awards for your work and you're especially

00:34interested in this issue of young people migrating because of climate change issues.

00:42Welcome to the programme. Can you just give us an idea perhaps, give us some examples of

00:49where this is happening, where young people are moving basically for climate change reasons?

00:58Thank you for calling me on board and to give you an example where exactly young people are moving

01:03because of climate migration, everywhere. An example of a place like Ladakh in India.

01:12We are running out of snowfall which is leaving us by the mid-summer. Now we don't have enough

01:22water in places like Ladakh which is an extreme cold Himalayan region. If we don't have water

01:30over there, first we don't have water to drink, second we don't have water to do the business

01:34which is agriculture. Now when people don't have any work to do over there and they have to support

01:39the family, what they do is they move out of their own safe land where they have been living from

01:44their childhood, their family have been living for decades and decades. Now they leave this place

01:49which offers them comfort and a good health and a very respectable life. They move on to cities,

01:54urban cities where they do not have any base, no understanding and they work over there somehow to

02:00make some money, send it back home. Not only in the country itself but they go to other countries

02:04with the hope that they will be able to make some money and it's happening across the nation,

02:08not only the specific Ladakhi region in the Himalayas, it's happening in the west area of

02:14whether we talk about Rajasthan, whether we talk about Gujarat or whether we go northeast

02:19or central or down south. What can be done to stop this happening? Migration is causing

02:28problems in other areas but people can surely understand what these young people are having

02:34to deal with. What approach can be taken to deal with this problem? These countries can't just be

02:38emptied out of their populations. Exactly and again migration comes with its own

02:47positive points as well but majorly negative points and we can't really let go of these

02:52problems. We have been doing the same thing with the climate change. Youngsters have been out

02:56there whether we talk about COP 29 or the other COPs which have taken places or any global event

03:02which has been taking places across the globe. There have been so many young people coming up

03:06and raising their voice and raising the sort of problems they've been facing in their regions

03:11but policy makers and leaders globally have been ignoring them. That's what we are doing

03:16with migration as well. If we start working on this subject of migration, we can really

03:22sort this problem out by putting focus and money where the mouth is but we have been

03:28delaying our solutions. We have been delaying focusing on problems. If we start focusing,

03:33we can start giving solutions. We can start doing R&D on places wherever we feel climate

03:39change is taking place at a rapid speed and causing climate migration. For example, if we say

03:45a place where Ladakh again, for an example, if we are losing snowfall over there,

03:52we can start focusing how we can solve it. So for example, India has been building artificial

03:58glaciers over there by Sonam Wangchuk who's a very famous environmentalist over there.

04:02So we can bring such more solutions over there and we can help the people with their farming.

04:09We can use data science, we can use AI in those regions to predict the upcoming snowfall and how

04:15much water we will have. And we can also use modern technologies to recharge the groundwater

04:21and also to suggest farmers over there which crop should they go for this season so that they can do

04:27farming throughout the season. They can make money and survive on that region. But again,

04:31we don't focus on the problem. We're going to face a lot of migration.

04:36We saw Donald Trump elected just a week ago and around the world there is some sign sometimes of

04:44ordinary people getting a bit fed up of being blamed for everything. There seems to be something

04:50of a backlash over the problems of climate change and what we should be doing to combat it.

04:57How can you change your approach to deal with what seems to be something of a backlash

05:05over environmental issues? The only way forward is to push harder. I know that the administration

05:14now which is in power in the US does not really believe in it. And even last time when the same

05:20president was there in power, they took their name off from the Paris Agreement as well.

05:25And they haven't showed up in this year in COP29 as well. They are not listening to people.

05:30But by not listening to the truth, you can't really change it. And the people who believe

05:36in science, who believe in data, they will keep on pushing. From my side and from all the people

05:42who believe in climate change is happening, who believe in protecting the nature which gives us

05:46life, we have to push it harder. And we have to wait for the next term. Till then, stay tight and

05:51keep walking. I want to thank you for your time and for your optimism. Good luck with your work.

05:58Thank you very much indeed for joining us here on France 24.

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