Young women of today are the answer to our climate crisis!

The beginning of 2015 marked the launch of the 1 Million Women Youth Campaign. A campaign, which looks at inspiring and empowering young women from across the globe to join the fight against climate change and start actively reducing their carbon emissions. As the Youth Coordinator for the 1 Million Women Movement and a student of the environments, I have a personal goal, to inspire 100,000 young women to join our campaign and take a step toward a brighter, more sustainable future.

As a young woman, I am constantly being reminded that my generation will bear the brunt of the environmental destruction and degradation that humanity has been fuelling for the last two hundred years. This knowledge can be rather daunting and at times overwhelming. Yet, my work with 1 Million Women and the girls program has given me faith that my generation and future generations can make a real change! The kind of dedication and commitment displayed by the young women I have been working with, reassures me that action is imminent and change is inevitable.

The new generation

My generation is becoming increasingly aware of the challenges and opportunities that the necessary transition to low carbon growth entails, and many of us are joining the global dialogue on solutions, getting involved and taking real action! Through the 1 Million Women youth program I have been able to observe some of these incredible young women who are working to determine our future by acting on climate change and they are truly inspiring.

Our younger generations have an increasingly strong social and environmental awareness and the necessary energy and knowledge to lead our society toward a low carbon and climate resilient future. It is absolutely crucial that we are empowering our young women to become leaders of change and to adopt suitable practices from an early age. These women are our grassroots leaders and change begins with them!

I strongly believe that we need to be engaging our current generation at a local, national and global level and encouraging them to raise awareness, conserve the natural environment, promote renewable energy and adopt environmentally friendly practices.

1 Million Women's girls

Our Youth Program, which works directly with school aged girls, looks at mobilising and inspiring these young women to take action. Climate change is not simply the crisis of the twenty first century, it is a crisis all humanity faces, and we need more then bureaucratic legislation and renewable energy systems, we need real action. We need our younger generations to live sustainably; and actively adopt a green, carbon neutral lifestyle. The solution to climate change is not immediate it is gradual and cumulative so sustainable living needs to be introduce from a young age.

So, it's absolutely crucial that climate education begins in schools. While the geopolitics and environmental science side of climate change can be rather complex, the solution is simple – reducing our carbon emissions. Through the Youth Program we are encouraging young women to join our carbon challenge and commit to cutting 1 tone of carbon pollution within a year.

The response from the schools has been incredible! Watching these passionate and dedicated young women take action has given me indelible hope! All the girls I have visited have displayed an intense commitment to their environment and a genuine concern for the natural state of their planet.

On the 27th of March, we launched the 1 Million Women Youth Program at Sydney Girls High School. Both myself and two of our fantastic school ambassadors delivered a short presentation and called on all of the girls to sign up to the movement and join the fight against climate change! The response was simply incredible. The sign up sheets moved around the room with incredible speed, as girl after girl added her name and became an official member of the campaign.

All revolutions start from the ground up

The room at the Sydney Girls High launch was alive with excitement; the atmosphere charged and the sense of enthusiasm virtually palpable. As the assembly came to an end and the clipboards found their way to the front of the room, I began to tally the names. In the forty-five minute assembly more then 1,000 girls had registered to become members of the movement and committed to reducing their CO2 emissions.

I flipped through page after page of neatly inscribed names. Girls of varying ages and interest all united in their common cause. I followed the girls out of the hall, their excited chatter filling the school auditorium. As I tucked the sign up sheets safely into my bag, reusable of course, I looked back on the schoolyard.

There amidst the oversized uniforms and neatly braided hair I saw hope! I saw a generation of young women fighting for their environment! The young women of today are the answer to our climate crisis. Their dedication and commitment will have tangible benefits! We need to educate and inspire these women to take charge and become leaders of change. This is our solution and this is our mission.

So join us and continue to inspire women, inspire change and inspire action!