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COP22 #Decarbonize Blue Youth White Paper

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www.decarbonize.me Section III: A Global Call to Action We believe that everyone must take action to make a global impact on climate change. We cannot sit back and wait for our governments to move forward; we are all responsible and we must all take action together. It is imperative to work towards sustaining harmony between the needs of development and today's climate challenges. We cannot keep going in our current direction - it is time for us to change. We believe more action should be taken at the individual, community, national, and global level in order for significant changes to take place. In Communities and Schools: We demand climate change education in schools to foster environmental literacy. Educational programs need to be adapted to address local environmental concerns. Students can encourage their teachers and principals to turn off lights, heating and cooling devices and unplug other electronic devices. We can also take action to enforce the use of paperless teaching and to reduce meat consumption in our school cafeterias. Personally, we have each taken a pledge to plant and care for a tree as part of a reforestation program, and we challenge you to do the same. We as a community must take action to create sustainable and more energy efficient transportation around the world. We demand that municipalities increase the availability of public transport, such as busses, trains, bicycles and subways. ese transportation options need to be effective, reliable, and sustainable to meet all commuting needs. is can be expanded by encouraging the public to carpool or rideshare. National and International We call on governments to take strong and decisive action on climate change. Governments must collaborate more with indigenous and religious leaders to have their views and ideas expressed and acted on. Newly developed technologies and programs designed to address climate change must be shared with all developing countries to lower the likeliness of recurring disasters. We stress the need to encourage the donation of food, clothes, and personal items, as well as creating more food and clothing banks in respect to cli- mate change refugees. We stress the need to address the growing global crisis of climate refugees through honouring and increasing commitments to international aid and local programs provid- ing basic human needs. Climate change related health service and community disaster prepared- ness plans must be put in place to help communities prepare and recover from climate disasters. As young global citizens, we call on all governments to take strong and decisive climate action to- wards the transition away from fossil fuels. From legislating energy efficient light bulgs to modify- ing building codes, from providing household incentives on energy bills to implementing a carbon tax, all levels of government need to work with their youth and interested parties to create and drive change.

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