The pope himself spoke this week. His call? May all come together to make the world a better place for humans and other living organisms. That was his message as the Pontifical Academy of Sciences hosted a two-day conference on “The Resilience of People and Ecosystems under Climate Stress” at the Vatican.

That the church is stepping up on climate change is not for nothing: the crisis is no longer on our doorstep, but inside our homes. According to a global public opinion survey conducted by the Yale Climate Change Communication Program and Meta this week, “most of the world is worried about climate change – and wants action.”

The report, which highlights the role of journalists not only in alerting but also in enlightening the public about climate change, shows that globally people think climate change is “extremely” or “very important”. People are worried about climate change, “especially how it will affect young people and generations to come”.

Parents today worry about many things, including the safety of their children at school, those left in the hands of housekeepers at home, the effect of technology and social media on their lives, to name a few. According to the report, however, some parents are rightly worried about how climate change will affect their offspring.

If this is the concern of all parents, then it is necessary to act for the sake of peace for present and future generations.

Kenya, according to the 2019 census, is a young country with over 35.5 million of the over 46 million people under the age of 35.

As well as having the energy to drive climate action, young people are the bearers of the latest knowledge about climate change and how to fight it. they can curate content and run campaigns that will reach more people than if the old ways were to be fully utilized.

This demographic also has the latest technology in their hands and has the knowledge of using social media to run campaigns. They have connections and peers locally, regionally and globally. They are influencers and goodwill ambassadors who can help achieve a lot, including the goals set out in the Revised Nationally Determined Contributions that Kenya sent to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in December 2020 .

Young people are best placed to drive climate action in developing and least developed countries where the slow penetration of key information, as well as poor or limited understanding of critical climate change issues by populations in front line of the crisis have slowed action.

Young people must be involved to help push for action on both sides – reducing greenhouse gas emissions while increasing the resilience of communities to climate change.

As presidential candidates from different political camps share their manifestos, mostly verbally, it is clear that they have recognized the need to address climate change to improve food security, health and nutrition, as well as the ‘economy.

Through climate action, from training to building the capacity of indigenous and other communities to practice smart agriculture, use water sources and forests sustainably, improve waste management and use of land, more employment opportunities will present themselves and absorb the unemployed youths for whom manifestos are being sold in political rallies now.