Kids on Climate: Inspiring Stories and Actions

Kids at the Forefront of Climate Action: Insights from COP30 and More

Welcome to another episode of Takaro Kids, your go-to podcast for the latest news and insights on global events. This week, we are thrilled to bring you an exclusive conversation with Arati Davis from the Stockholm Environment Institute. Arati shares her experiences from COP30, a significant event marking ten years since the Paris Agreement, held in the Amazon rainforest. Discover the critical sectors contributing to climate change, the role of children in climate negotiations, and inspiring initiatives from young athletes in Delhi. Plus, engage in our weekly quiz and hear from kids making a difference in their communities. Don't miss this enlightening episode!

00:00 Welcome to Takaro Kids
00:30 Special Guest: Arati Davis from Stockholm Environment Institute
01:18 Insights from COP 30
02:54 The Role of Hard-to-Abate Sectors in Climate Change
04:47 Youth Involvement in Climate Change Discussions
11:29 Delhi's Air Quality Crisis
18:21 Quiz Time and Weekly Challenge
19:35 Last Week's Quiz Winner and Closing Remarks

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Transcript

Kiran Menon 0:02

Mics camera, action,

Debkanya 0:05

Welcome to Takaro Kids. This is your weekly podcast that brings you all the latest updates from the world around you and helps you understand what these events are and how they shape the world around you.

Kiran Menon 0:19

and as a follow up to our last episode. We thought it would be nice to have someone who was, you know, part of that conversation and who was part of that summit. In fact, we got really, really lucky to speak to Arati Davis who works at the Stockholm Environment Institute in Sweden. And, she works with companies and governments across the world to, you know, promote sustainable growth, to promote environmentally friendly solutions and to kind of have that conversation and move forward towards that. Paris Treaty, in fact, at COP 30, she was part of the youth council where we had kids all the way from age 3 to 18.

Debkanya 1:01

Wow.

Kiran Menon 1:03

Taking part in that conversation. I spoke to Arati earlier this week, so let's go.

Debkanya 1:09

Let's listen. I'm very excited.

Kiran Menon 1:12

Arati, thank you so much for being a part of the Takaro podcast. We did the, episode about COP 30 and what I heard is you were there right?

Arati Davis 1:26

I was there, got back very early this morning, but yes.

Kiran Menon 1:30

Oh, wow. And, and what, what does it feel like to be at COP 30?

Arati Davis 1:35

At COP 30 specifically. I mean we have this every year, as you know, it's in different

Kiran Menon 1:39

Mm-hmm.

Arati Davis 1:40

Every year cop 30 became very special. Is very special because it's 10 years from the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement is when all these different countries came together and said, let's set some targets nowso we don't cross the 1.5 degree target of heating that we were scared we would

Kiran Menon 1:57

Yep.

Arati Davis 1:58

Um, and this is the first kind of stock take, if you like, of where we are in that target setting. So it's quite a significant COP in that regard in. And of course also it was held in a very spot, special part of the world. It was held in the Amazon rainforest, it was

Kiran Menon 2:14

Yep.

Arati Davis 2:15

Belem in Brazil. so that was, for me, quite an amazing experience because, the last couple of COPs last year it was Azerbaijan. Then we had Dubai, and then we've had, we've kind of rotated around the Middle East, if you like. to go

Kiran Menon 2:29

Yeah.

Arati Davis 2:30

which is the heart of the conversation we're having about why climate change has caused the problems that it's caused,

Kiran Menon 2:37

Mm-hmm.

Arati Davis 2:37

interesting way of connecting, to the problem as well as kinda the solutions that we're trying to to solve during the negotiations.

Kiran Menon 2:46

So, so what took you to COP30, what do you do? Give our listeners a quick overview.

Arati Davis 2:51

Sure. I'll give you a quick, it's like a two sentence. So there are different kind of triggers in terms of this kind. Uh, when we talk about climate change and emissions and the problem of, for lack of a better word, temperature increase we're looking at different ways of different kinds of temperature increase. We've got the 1.5 degree target, in terms of how much warmer the world will get, that is caused by emissions and that's caused by carbon emissions. And there are different sectors, in the economy that are responsible for these carbon emissions. And we have three sectors that are called hard to abate sectors that is cement responsible about 7% of carbon emissions in the world, steel about 8%, and transport about 15%. These are significant sectors that contribute to one of the big problems that we have, which is, climate change.

Kiran Menon 3:41

But it's so interesting. So are we talking about the fact that the making of concrete is actually one of the biggest contributors

Arati Davis 3:50

exactly.

Kiran Menon 3:51

of steel?

Arati Davis 3:51

Yes.

Kiran Menon 3:52

Oh.

Arati Davis 3:53

Yeah, the whole, the whole value chain of steel and cement production is quite very carbon intensive because of the heat required and the extractive nature of the mining that's required from the iron ore and the clinker when it comes to cement and steel. So these

Kiran Menon 4:05

Mm-hmm.

Arati Davis 4:06

Key contributors when it comes to the emissions in the value chain of cement production. And of course, transport is a whole component, manufacturing of an a fuel based, uh, vehicle for transport. These are the main, main sectors. So the work that I do is I work with a number of countries. I've got 18 countries that are members of ours and 30 companies, and we work to try and create the understanding of how collaboration working together and technology can help move the needle when it comes to finding ways to solve the problems of emissions.

Kiran Menon 4:39

That is a very, very responsible role that you have and, and something that's really, really important. You know, you were also involved in the kids council at Cop 30, so what was that?

Arati Davis 4:56

So I think, I mean, before I talk about the, uh, um, conference that I was an observer to,

Kiran Menon 5:03

Mm-hmm.

Arati Davis 5:03

I think there's a, there is a increasing understanding, not just at COP 30, but in the negotiations around climate that we're, we're in this not for us,

Kiran Menon 5:15

Right.

Arati Davis 5:16

The impacts of climate change. Of course, we're seeing that. You're seeing temperature increases. I know you're talking about hurricanes Melissa, all the kind of extreme weather events that are the outcomes of, of climate change and ocean, sea level rise, glaciers melting. But the real impacts will be felt 2045 onwards. And that is not your generation. It's not my generation. It is the children and the youth of today that will be impacted by these changes. And so there has been a recognition in the last four years that while we are working towards trying to see how we can solve these problems. It needs to be also the voices of children and today's youth that tell us what they want to see and what this world needs to look like and how they are angry with us because they have every right to be angry. We've destroyed a lot of what they will inherit.

Kiran Menon 6:04

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Arati Davis 6:05

They have been part of the discussions around climate change for a while. But at Brazil, what was amazing at this COP is they were, they were, they were in the center of it. they were brought to do youth councils to talk about what they were unhappy with, and of course.

Kiran Menon 6:21

Okay.

Arati Davis 6:22

Their lives are very different as a result of some of the changes that have been made in terms of water conservation, energy, electricity, and how they would like to see changes to make their world a better place. Now, it was mostly a Latin American, a youth council by virtue of moving and transport, but it was more than a hundred, a hundred children. Uh, talking about

Kiran Menon 6:41

Wow.

Arati Davis 6:42

in the future. It was quite amazing.

Kiran Menon 6:44

And how were these kids chosen?

Arati Davis 6:46

So I, there are of course organizations, uh, in Brazil and in Latin America that work with children. Um, and then of course you've got the un So COP is under the umbrella of the UN. And they reach out to these organizations and it's linkages, uh, to say, how can we bring these children in and these young people? So it's not just, it's four to, uh, 18, we're in the room. Um, because of course there are very different perspectives of what they're asking for. So it's a hundred people from four to 18 coming forward through their organizations, working with environment to talk about what they want to see. The United Nations facilitated that. So the youngest, uh, was about three being held by her mother.

Kiran Menon 7:25

Oh,

Arati Davis 7:25

Um, yeah. I mean, it was everyone and, and the oldest was 18.

Kiran Menon 7:29

Okay.

Arati Davis 7:29

And everyone could speak. So the three-year-old, in terms of the one being held by her mother, she would say a few words, but what she was talking about is that, um, they don't have access again. I think you touched upon it, one of your previous episodes. This COP brought in what we call indigenous communities. Very, very,

Kiran Menon 7:46

Yeah.

Arati Davis 7:47

Clearly into the picture. this was a

Kiran Menon 7:50

Yeah.

Arati Davis 7:50

community saying that she cannot access water, and there's no

Kiran Menon 7:54

Oh wow.

Arati Davis 7:55

her. And she wants that to change. She wants clean water for her community. Uh, she doesn't want to live in a world where she's scared to drink the water around her. so all of these very, it is a three-year-old saying it and with her mother helping. Exactly. Yeah.

Kiran Menon 8:08

Wow, that's powerful.

Arati Davis 8:09

Yeah. It

Kiran Menon 8:10

and um, so with each COP now COP 31 that's gonna come up next year, um, is there always a youth council where kids are involved? Is that something that usually happens?

Arati Davis 8:24

I would say actually it's not been as visible as it was

Kiran Menon 8:27

Mm-hmm.

Arati Davis 8:28

Um, I think

Kiran Menon 8:29

Okay.

Arati Davis 8:29

what's been amazing about the Brazil COP is that they have not tried to push away the conversations that are more complicated to have, because talking about children, talking about the youth is hard to have at negotiation level. Countries don't do that

Kiran Menon 8:43

Yeah.

Arati Davis 8:43

Much, which is where the COP is really situated as countries coming together. more. Difficult conversations about children, about the youth, about indigenous communities. Brazil has really opened up the spaces for that. So we really do hope that next year and COP will be in Turkey next year, that continues. 'cause we've seen a lot of really strong examples of why we can have this as part of what has been a very formal place before, with countries coming together and now companies coming in and platforms like myself coming to talk about, you know. What does business have to say about this? We need to expand this to include children and the youth because they are, they are why we're doing this.

Kiran Menon 9:24

Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. Before we kind of round up what would you say that children, kids should kind of think about from an environment perspective? Um, in our previous episode we talked about, you know, how they could potentially save electricity and water and be more sort of mindful about.

Arati Davis 9:54

I think what I'd say is the same message that I would tell you or tell anyone I speak to is, is it's, it's not about one person. It's about the community. It's about the collective. It's about everyone around us. and to not only, and I think you said this in the, in the last episode as well, don't think about just yourself or just your family. Think about everyone, um, that this can affect. And that's of course in your, in your compound, everyone in the street, everyone in your, in your, in your building. Every decision you take, it's not being taken by one person. It's taken by being taken by hundreds. So if you make the right decision, you can actually be the ambassador for that decision. It's hundreds of people that will follow.

Kiran Menon 10:35

I could not have said it better.

Arati Davis 10:36

I mean, that's for me also, and that's for you, Kiran. And that we need to be

Kiran Menon 10:39

Yeah, no, absolutely. Oh, hundred percent. Then I think, um, that is such a powerful message only because very often we kind of assume that one person doing something is not enough. Uh, but when you think about the fact that whatever you do is actually impacting many, many others. One person doing something is actually very, very powerful. Right. So

Arati Davis 11:04

Absolutely.

Kiran Menon 11:04

that, that is a, a very good message. Thank you so much for that.

Arati Davis 11:08

you.

Debkanya 11:13

That was so inspiring, I mean, and I completely agree with her. It is so important for all of us to speak to each other and the more we speak about it, the more solutions, uh, we can come up with. Right. And you know. is actually the perfect point at which to tell you another great story. This one's from Delhi. Now, if you've been, you know, listening to the news, reading the news, you know that Delhi is struggling. Delhi in particular has been struggling with really, really poor air.

Kiran Menon 11:40

We also covered the same sort of, uh, issues and concerns last year around this time as well. So it's something that happens every year, but it's getting worse and worse, right?

Debkanya 11:49

It's getting worse. Exactly. I mean, in fact, the Air quality Index, which is AQI, that's

Kiran Menon 11:54

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 11:54

we, it's, it's a number that tells you exactly how bad the air is or how much, how many pollutants are in the air,

Kiran Menon 12:01

Yeah.

Debkanya 12:02

help you understand, if it's a zero to 50, that means it's great quality here.

Kiran Menon 12:07

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 12:08

It's good air. Uh, anything above 50 50 to a hundred is moderate, not too bad.

Kiran Menon 12:13

Yep.

Debkanya 12:13

above 300 means it's dangerous. It's really bad. You better wear a mask or stay indoor and use air purifiers as much as possible because it's super, super hard for your lungs to breathe. That kind of air and deli this year, has seen AQI going up to a above 400, Which

Kiran Menon 12:32

Oof.

Debkanya 12:32

terrible.

Kiran Menon 12:33

And, and you know, just to kind of give comparison, right? So where I am in Bangalore right now, it's about 60, 65. What about you in Bombay, Debbie?

Debkanya 12:43

Bombay is also quite poor right now. It's around 202. Yeah, between 200 to 300 is what I'm, what I'm

Kiran Menon 12:51

Okay.

Debkanya 12:51

Yeah. Yeah. So it is, there's a lot of pollution here. The weather, by the way, in Mumbai right now is nice. It's cooler.

Kiran Menon 12:58

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 12:58

than it ever, ever is, uh, in the city, but. means the

Kiran Menon 13:02

You know, but

Debkanya 13:03

not that clean.

Kiran Menon 13:04

the, the problem is with the more and more pollution. We're actually gonna see temperatures dip more and more. The reason is fundamentally because as pollution increases in the air, it creates this dome around the city, and so it does not allow the gases to get out or the pollution to get out. Now that creates a sort of, you know, layer. Which does not even let the entire power of the sun come in as well. So it works both ways. It traps the, air making it very tough for us to breathe, but it reduces the amount of sun coming in. And so temperatures are supposed to be at the worst in India, um, over last few years. This year is gonna be really, really bad. Temperatures are supposed to be dropping really low,

Debkanya 13:47

to

Kiran Menon 13:47

and that's fundamentally exactly, fundamentally because of the pollution. And, and just to kind of keep giving some comparison, right? We talked about Bangalore, we talked about Bombay, A QI, um, in Ooty for example, it's, um, it's not as bad. It's about 40, 41 a QI.

Debkanya 14:06

the healthy range.

Kiran Menon 14:08

It's, it's within the healthy range. But you know what is amazing? I was just checking London just randomly. I, a.

Debkanya 14:18

What is that even possible?

Kiran Menon 14:20

It is one. Oh my God, that is that.

Debkanya 14:23

insane.

Kiran Menon 14:24

the purest.

Debkanya 14:25

to get some pure air breathe. That's amazing. Gosh. I mean, and, they say right, most cities that are, on the coast,

Kiran Menon 14:36

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 14:37

the sea, like Bombay has the sea, London is also near the sea. you also have other cities like I think San Francisco's AQI is usually really good as well.

Kiran Menon 14:45

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 14:46

That's also near the sea. The Sea. Remember if you, uh, in, in one of the episodes we spoke about how the ocean is actually one of your biggest allies to fight climate change because it

Kiran Menon 14:55

Yeah.

Debkanya 14:56

so much carbon from the air absorbs so much pollution from the air. Well, cities near the sea generally have an advantage, but in spite of that, you know, coming back to Bombay's, AQI, it's still high, which means

Kiran Menon 15:07

is.

Debkanya 15:07

Can, yeah, can you imagine how bad it would be if we didn't have the sea here?

Kiran Menon 15:13

Yep.

Debkanya 15:13

Very, very worrying. But yes, I was telling you about this really cool story though, so.

Kiran Menon 15:18

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 15:18

So a bunch of students actually went and, approached the Delhi High Court. Okay. Because they were being made to do outdoor sports activities in spite of the weather. In spite of the AQI being what it is. Yeah. So these kids, they were around, I think 11 of them, they went. Obviously with the help of their parents, they went to the Delhi Court and said, you have to stop all outdoor sports trials and tournaments, which are scheduled between the months of November and January. Now, please note these kids are not saying this just to get out of playing sports, okay? They're not being like lazy. Just to clarify, these kids are actually athletes. They're serious athletes. Some of them have Olympic dreams, some of them want to play in the national, level sports, so they're very serious athletes and they're going in saying that, Hey, you know what? Stop all outdoor activities because this is actually terrible for our lungs, terrible for our health, and will impact the way we play sport and our, our lives in general.

Kiran Menon 16:16

In fact.

Debkanya 16:20

Yeah.

Kiran Menon 16:22

We are talking about all of this because it's gonna be something that we leave behind for the kids. And if we leave behind a terrible, terrible world with so much pollution, they're the ones who are gonna get most affected. It's actually not even us, not even those who are in their forties, fifties, any of that. It's actually the kids who are now in their teens and, you know, potentially others who are gonna actually have a lot of issues if we don't make that change today.

Debkanya 16:46

Yeah.

Kiran Menon 16:47

Arati was actually also telling me that she would be more than happy to answer any question that you may have about the environment, about sustainability, about the ecosystem that we are living in. She'd be very, very happy to answer some of those questions. So if you have questions, do send us voice notes and we'll get Arati to respond back with, um, you know, her perspective and also what the world is actually doing and what we need to do. So feel free to kind of send us those voice notes and questions that, that you may have. In fact, we had also asked you for voice notes

Debkanya 17:24

that's what I

Kiran Menon 17:25

week. Give us examples of how you have been a champion of the environment. And so we actually have a couple, and we're gonna play a couple of them right now. So listen in and make sure that you kind of understand some of the things other kids are doing and how you could potentially be a part of it as well.

Speaker 17:48

Cool. This is how I save water. Close the tap while I'm brushing my teeth. When the ice fall. Don't put in the sink. Put in the plant.

Debkanya 18:01

Now, isn't that so cool? So it is really, really as simple as that. All you have to do is start today, start small, but start right, do something that will help, um, you know, change people around you as well, right? You might inspire and influence people around you to also take that small step to make the world a better place. Okay, cool. So with that, we are going to move into this week's quiz question. This week's question is to do with the AQI. We are not gonna ask you the range. We are not gonna ask you what Delhi was or any of the other cities that we mentioned, but we do want you to do some research. We want you to look this up for yourself. Where was the highest ever AQI recorded in the world? Okay, go out there, look it up. It's fairly simple and I was actually surprised at how high that AQI was, not the

Kiran Menon 18:54

Yeah.

Debkanya 18:55

so much, but at how high it really was. So yes, send us your answers. All you have to do is get onto www.takarokids.com and you can send us your answer there, or you can send it to us as a DM on Instagram and we will be picking one lucky winner. And what does that winner get? Kiran?

Kiran Menon 19:18

T-shirt and a gift voucher for you to do whatever you want with it. In fact. It doesn't matter if you're the first person to send us a message, it doesn't matter if it's the 15th time that you're sending us an answer. Everyone is in the lucky draw every single week. And so last week we asked you what human activity causes climate change. This was a tricky one, right, Debbie? What were the options?

Debkanya 19:44

It's a tricky one. Uh, the options we gave you were. 1. Cutting down forests.

Kiran Menon 19:49

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 19:50

2. Buying too many things. 3. Using a lot of plastic. 4. recycling. Right. Which of these human activities causes climate change? correct answer if you've chosen it correctly was the first three. There

Kiran Menon 20:03

Yep.

Debkanya 20:04

one choice. Cutting down forests, buying too many things, using a lot of plastic. All these three things contribute towards climate change. The fourth one, which is recycling is actually good for the planet and can help you mitigate or reduce the effects of climate change.

Kiran Menon 20:21

This, this week we actually had a lot of responses. We had multiple responses. Um, we had a lot of people, a lot of kids kind of sending us the answers and it was very interesting. Exactly. All of them had the right answer, Debbie. It was pretty cool. Um, so.

Debkanya 20:38

a trick question after all.

Kiran Menon 20:40

It wasn't. I mean, come on. They're so smart. So the right winner is Anna, who is a 12-year-old from Bangalore. So congratulations, Anna. You are gonna get your t-shirt, we'll ask you for your address. So please send us the address and we'll send you your t-shirt and a online gift voucher. Hopefully you buy something which does not Cause climate change, but

Debkanya 21:06

Yeah.

Kiran Menon 21:06

it's okay. Yeah.

Debkanya 21:07

it for a special day and club it with something else that you're going to get. Like, because one of the things we do say is do not buy too many things. And a very smart little girl actually pointed out, but hey, you are giving us vouchers, so you're kind of encouraging us to buy things, right? So, uh, we took that feedback, we took that feedback, and we are also encouraging you therefore, to save that voucher up and use it for a very special occasion.

Kiran Menon 21:30

The worst part was that smart little kid was my daughter, so I had no answer to give her. So yeah, good catch. But um, until next week, make sure that you send us your questions that you may have for Arati and also send us the answer for the quiz question. You could be the lucky winner. And until next week, bye-bye.

Debkanya 21:51

Goodbye.