A group of students who are a part of the carbon-negative Bhutan initiative has a message for the world – we need to do much more to ensure that young people are involved and participating in the fight against climate change. A group of 12 boys and girls from Orong Central School in Bhutan’s Samdrup Jongkhar district were recently in attendance for the Northeast Green Summit.Â
 A few students suggested that holding climate change-related competitions and events in schools and colleges will eventually encourage more young people to work in the climate action space. We need to listen to these students and heed their message to make a real difference in the fight against climate change.
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Phuntsho Wangmo, a class 12 student, said that every individual could make a difference for the environment, no matter how small the gesture may be. She gave an example of how the district authorities in Samdrup Jongkhar organise an annual competition wherein school students put forth creative ways like recycling waste materials to save the environment. Such competitions not only engage youth in thinking about ways to protect the environment but also incentivise them to take action.
“If we realise our responsibilities towards the environment at an early stage, it will undeniably help us behave more responsibly,” said Kezabg Sherab, a class 10 student from Bhutan who participated in the seventh edition of the summit at the North Eastern Police Academy here. He also said that youth engagement is pivotal to environmental action and that the students of classes 10 to 12 from the ‘Land of the Thunder Dragon’ participated in the event for the first time.